Dotnet logo

Essential productivity kit for .NET and game developers

.NET Tools

Matt Ellis

Did you know? The using keyword has two completely different meanings. You can use it to import classes from different namespaces at the top of a file, or to ensure deterministic cleanup in a method body. It’s not the only keyword that has multiple meanings. See how many you can think of.

dotInsights | July 2026

Welcome to dotInsights by JetBrains! This newsletter is the home for recent .NET and software development related information.

🔗 Links

Here’s the latest from the developer community.

  1. The new Visual Studio Solution File Format: Goodbye .SLN, Welcome .SLNX! – Thomas Claudius Huber
  2. Epic Games Announces Lore Open-Source Version Control System – Phoronix – Michael Larabel
  3. New features and Roslyn analyzers for Meziantou.Framework.FullPath – Gérald Barré
  4. Discriminated unions in C# and .NET 11 (for real this time) – Maarten Balliauw
  5. C#10 The field keyword – DEV Community – Karen Payne
  6. Introducing the Field Guide to Grid Lanes | WebKit – Jen Simmons
  7. AI Agentic Harness Demystified – Sam Basu
  8. Introducing the State of AI Coding 2026 – Jim Young
  9. What If The Real Key To AI Coding Is Old-Fashioned & Boring? – Jason Gorman
  10. Safely injecting a JSON configuration object into a Razor Page – Bart Wullems
  11. Building Dapr Workflows in .NET With Aspire – Milan Jovanović
  12. Your API is Already an MCP Server – ShiftMag – Marin Pavelić
  13. Why Isn’t My 3D View Transition Working? | CSS-Tricks – Sunkanmi Fafowora
  14. Your Diverse API Toolbox – Kin Lane
  15. How can I schedule work on a thread pool with low latency? – Raymond Chen
  16. A message queue bought us time – Daniel Marbach
  17. .NET CLI tools in the AI fury or how to guide agents during production investigations – Christophe Nasarre
  18. Implement the Device Authorization Flow in a C# Console App – Andrea Chiarelli
  19. Simplifying file logging in ASP.NET Core with Serilog – Ali Hamza Ansari
  20. How Duende IdentityServer Filters Claims (And Why It Matters) – Khalid Abuhakmeh and Maarten Balliauw
  21. Ship your C# MCP Server as a one-click bundle with MCPB – Bart Wullems
  22. Implementing a custom GitHub token broker – Martin Costello
  23. Turn messy production code into a useful benchmark – Daniel Marbach
  24. What are git worktrees, and why should I use them? – The GitHub Blog – Cassidy Williams
  25. Compile-time feature flags in C# using IL weaving and a Roslyn analyzer – Scott
  26. Improving C# Safety Without Turning It Into Rust – Mike James
  27. BulkMerge (Upsert) in EF Core: How to Insert-or-Update Without the Headache – Chris Woodruff
  28. .NET 11 Preview 5: Brings File-Based App Improvements, New C# Features, and a Blazor Validation Wave – InfoQ – Almir Vuk
  29. EF Core vs Dapper in .NET: When to Use Each – Nick Cosentino
  30. Announcing SkiaSharp 4.0 – Sam Basu
  31. Microsoft denies WSL 3 exists, reveals Windows 11’s WSL Containers ship next week – Abhijith M B
  32. .NET 5 to 10: Key Features Introduced in Every Release – Funky Si’s Blog – Simon Foster

☕ Coffee Break

Take a break with something a little more fun.

Strongly typed generic object in C# – Jiří Činčura

Parsing JSON at compile time with C++26 static reflection – Daniel Lemire. Yes, C++ can be fun. How dare you.

The History of Kodee, Kotlin’s Mascot – The JetBrains Blog – Olga Vorobeva, Nadia Lokot

🗞️ JetBrains News

What’s going on at JetBrains? Check it out here:

✉️ Comments? Questions? Send us an email. 

Subscribe to a monthly digest curated from the .NET Tools blog:

Discover more