[C#] Roadmap to Launch

[ErikSchierboom]

This issue tracks the C# v3 roadmap. If you'd like to help, please read this entire document, and then check the "How can you help" section.

Concepts

The core focus of v3 tracks is on teaching the concepts that make up a language. As such, we've been compiling a list of concepts for the C# language.

Concept exercises

To teach concepts, we're developing concept exercises, which are designed specifically to teach concepts (usually one per exercise). Concept exercises should teach students what makes C# unique. As an example, a floating-point numbers exercise's focus is on teaching how to work with floating-point numbers in C#, and less about teaching what floating-point numbers are.

It is important to understand we never explain a specific type or syntax as a concept, but teach the more "abstract" concept around it, using the type(s) or syntax(is).

Besides teaching one or more concepts, a concept exercise can have concepts the student must be familiar with before being allowed to start with the concept exercise. This is referred to as a concept exercise's prerequisites.

The concept exercises for the C# track are a work-in-progress and can be found in /concept-exercises. Important types of concepts to target are things that only exist in object-oriented programming (for people coming from non-OOP languages), functions as first-class citizens (for people coming from non-functional languages), and C# specifics like:

• Reference- and value type semantics
• Extensions methods
• ...

Already implemented

These are the exercises that have currently been implemented, as well as the concepts they teach and their prerequisite concepts:

exercise	concepts	prerequisites
numbers	basic-numbers basic-type-conversion conditionals	-
numbers-floating-point	floating-point-numbers loops	basic-numbers basic-type-conversion conditionals
strings	basic-strings	-
enums	basic-enums	basic-strings
dates	basic-dates basic-time string-formatting	basic-numbers basic-strings
bitwise-operations	bitwise-operations advanced-enums	basic-enums

⚠ Note ⚠: The idea here is to use a concept name for the exercise/folder, but perhaps use some sort of "progression", so they will naturally become a sort of path to traverse. In this example, the numbers exercise only teaches basic number usage, and the numbers-floating-point exercise builds on that and digs deeper into floating-point numbers.

It's only important that it's reasonably easy to find the exercise. It's okay if the name isn't perfect. We will iterate on this.

To be implemented

These are some planned exercises that still need to be implemented. Note: this too is an incomplete list.

exercise	concepts	assigned to
arrays	basic-arrays iteration	-
chars	basic-chars iteration	-
lists	basic-lists generics	-
sets	basic-sets sameness	-
integers	integers arithmetic-overflow advanced-type-conversion	-
classes	classes state objects	-
inheritance	inheritance polymorphism	-
higher-order-functions	higher-order-functions anonymous-methods pipelines	-
pattern-matching	pattern-matching	-
recursion	recursion	-
extension-methods	extension-methods	-
asynchrony	tasks	-

Concept interpretation

Here is how the C# track has interpreted the following concept keywords. This should be synced across tracks.

concept	interpretation
basic-numbers	Know of the existence of the two most commonly used number types, int and double, and understand that the former represents whole numbers, and the latter floating-point numbers. Know of basic operators such as multiplication and comparison. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it.
basic-strings	Know of the existence of the string type. Know of some basic functions (like looking up a character at a position, or slicing the string). Know how to do basic string formatting. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it.
basic-dates	Know of the existence of the DateTime type. Know of the individual, date-related properties. Know how to access the current date. Know how to compare dates. Know how to convert a string to a DateTime and vice versa. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it
basic-enums	Know of the existence of the enum keyword. Know how to define enum members. Know how to convert a string to an enum and vice versa. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it
advanced-enums	Know how to define a "flags" enum. Know how to add, remove or check for flags.
basic-time	Know of the existence of the DateTime type. Know of the individual, time-related properties. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it.
basic-type-conversion	Know that it is sometimes possible to convert from one type to another type.
conditionals	Know of the existence of conditional execution statements (such as the if statement).
floating-point-numbers	Know of the existing of the three floating point types: double, float and decimal. Know when to use which type.
string-formatting	Know how to format a string. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it.
bitwise-operations	Know how to apply bitwise operations to numbers. Know where it's documented, or at least how to search for it.

This also indicates that for example basic-strings does not teach using custom formatting strings and that basic-numbers does not teach about checked/unchecked arithmetic.

Documentation

There are three folders containing documentation:

• /info: C# concepts (like namespaces).
• /keywords: C# keywords (like using).
• /types: C# core types (like string).

This documentation can be used both as a starting point when creating concept exercises, as well as being referred to from exercises.

How can you help?

Documentation

There are C#-specific documentation files in the /info, /keywords and /types folders. Some of the files in these folders will be empty or stubs, others will be missing. We'd love PR's to add this documentation. You can use the already filled-in ones to see what we're looking for.

To find which concepts are missing, compare the files in the /info folder with the concepts listed in the README. For the keywords, compare the files in the /keywords folder with the C# keywords list. Finally, for the types, compare the files in the /types folder with the types listed in the README.

There are also general documentation files missing, most notably missing concepts in the root /concepts folder.

Exercises

We need two types of exercises. The concept ones, as explained above -- you can choose to pick one from the "To be implemented" list above or suggest, in this issue, one that's not listed. The other ones are the practice ones, which are like the v2 exercises.

Analyzers

TBD

[ErikSchierboom]

Closed in favor of the C# track's README.