Microsoft has released the beta of Windows Compatibility Pack, which brings 20,000 APIs to .NET Core for Windows, Linux, and MacOS, to make it more like the Windows-only .NET Framework. With the extended API access to help web developers move code from Windows-oriented .NET Framework to cross-platform .NET Core.
While .NET Framework spotlight is on Windows desktop development; the open source .NET Core is optimized for building web applications for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
And as .NET Core enables web applications that can scale and run on Linux; the addition of the .Net Framework APIs makes it even more resourceful.
But migration follows a series of steps, for instance, migrating from ASP.NET MVC application deployed on a Windows Server to an ASP.NET Core application on Linux on the Azure cloud, the company advises migrating to ASP.NET Core (ASP.NET Core extends .NET Core for web development) while still targeting .NET Framework.
And to move to .NET Core while still on Windows, before moving to Linux and Azure.
Albeit, some developers want to use Microsoft desktop technologies such as WinForms, Windows Presentation Foundation, or ASP.NET, so may decide to maintain coding on .NET Framework.
Microsoft, however offers a complete guide on migrations that includes identifying third-party dependencies and use of the company’s API Portability Analyzer tool, among others.
