C-SHARP - 1.2 What is C-Sharp?

Before diving into the syntax, a quick history. C# was created by Anders Hejlsberg at Microsoft and released in 2000. It is a simple, modern, flexible, object-oriented, type-safe and open-source programming language. Microsoft has invested heavily in it over the years. Built on top of the C and C++ family but designed to be easier to use, C# ships with a vast standard library that lets you tackle a wide range of tasks out of the box.

At launch, C# was exclusively a Windows language because the .NET runtime was tied to Microsoft's operating system. That limitation discouraged many developers from adopting it. The release of .NET Core (now just .NET) changed everything: the framework was redesigned to be cross-platform, running natively on Linux and macOS in addition to Windows. The audience grew accordingly, and today C# sits among the most popular programming languages in the world — meaning plenty of tutorials, libraries and StackOverflow answers when you get stuck. Companies like Domino's Pizza and NBC ship production software written in C#.

What you can build with C#

• Native Windows apps via WPF, WinForms and WinUI.
• Web apps and APIs with ASP.NET on top of .NET.
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android using Xamarin / .NET MAUI.
• Console tools, blockchain logic and AI workloads via ML.NET.
• Video games with the Unity engine, where C# is the scripting language behind titles like RimWorld.

C# is easy to read and easy to learn, especially for beginners. Combined with Visual Studio and .NET, it gives you a single language to target almost any platform. Unity in particular is a great playground for newcomers: large community, abundant YouTube tutorials and dedicated forums make it an ideal way to gain hands-on experience with the language. To wrap up: C# is one of the most versatile modern languages out there, backed by both Microsoft and a strong community. In the next video we will install everything we need to start writing our own code.