Editor's note
I curated a pretty balanced mix today: some fundamentals, some performance, and a few tooling updates. The Visual Studio MCP GA item stands out for day-to-day AI-assisted workflows, and the LINQ performance piece is a useful reality check for code that looks tidy but costs throughput. I also like the EF Core and Minimal APIs articles because they’re the sort of practical topics teams can apply immediately.
C# basics, EF Core tuning, and MCP in Visual Studio
Jasen Fici
August 25, 2025
Roll up your sleeves, it's Monday in the world of .NET, and we're revving up with the precision of a finely-tuned engine. Just like a classic car that never goes out of style, our curated articles today will fuel your development drive and keep your projects purring smoothly. So, polish off that weekend coding rust, and let’s set the pace for an epic week of innovation and byte-sized brilliance.
Today's Articles
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Jasen's take on today's picks
What are the difference between a function and a method in C# ?
A solid refresher on the C# basics that still trip people up, especially when “function” versus “method” starts showing up in code reviews.
FastEndpoints for Senior .NET Developers: Advanced Validation, DI, and Middleware Techniques
FastEndpoints gets a deeper treatment here, with validation, DI, and middleware patterns that matter once you’re past the hello-world stage.
From Stack to Span<T> — A Recap into C#’s Memory
Span
8 Simple Tricks to Make Your Code Look Professional Overnight
A quick-read post on making code look professional, which is really about consistency, clarity, and fewer surprises for the next person.
11 LINQ Calls Microsoft Engineers Replace for Up to ~2× Throughput
This LINQ-throughput piece is the kind of benchmark-driven article I like: specific replacements, measurable gains, and enough context to verify the tradeoffs.
EF Core + Code First “from zero to mastery” Tutorial
EF Core Code First gets a from-zero-to-mastery walkthrough, so newer readers and teams onboarding to the ORM should both find something useful.
Announcing Copilot Studio Agent Academy: Your Mission Starts Now
Copilot Studio Agent Academy is Microsoft’s latest AI-agent push, and it’s clearly aimed at people building beyond simple chat prompts.
Entity Framework Performance Tuning: Tips for Faster Queries
EF Core performance tuning rounds out the database side with practical query advice, which pairs nicely with the code-first tutorial.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is Now Generally Available in Visual Studio 🎉
Visual Studio’s MCP support reaching GA is a big tooling milestone, especially for developers using Agent Mode and richer context.
Don’t Just Build — Test, Ship, and Iterate with a Reliable .NET Core Boilerplate
A reliable .NET Core boilerplate article promises more than scaffolding: testability, shipping discipline, and iteration habits.
Building a High-Performance API with .NET and PostgreSQL
The high-performance API with PostgreSQL post is another production-minded read, focused on avoiding slow endpoints before users feel them.
Stop Picking the Wrong .NET Collection — A Principal Engineer’s Field Guide
Choosing the right .NET collection sounds basic, but this field guide is the kind of reference that prevents subtle design mistakes.
C# Boxing: A Hidden Performance Enemy (Defeat It Now)
Boxing still hides in plain sight, and this article does a good job explaining why it can quietly hurt performance.
Why I Stopped Caring About .NET vs Java (And You Should Too)
The .NET versus Java debate takes a pragmatic turn here, which is refreshing if you care more about systems than tribalism.
Top 10 GitHub Copilot Features Every Developer Should Know
Copilot feature roundups can be fluffy, but this one should help developers move beyond the obvious shortcuts.
How to use parameter binding for routes in Minimal APIs
Minimal API route parameter binding is a practical drill-down for anyone building small, clean web endpoints.
NuGet Goes Quiet: How a CDN Logging Outage Shook the .NET Ecosystem in 2025
The NuGet CDN outage story is a reminder that ecosystem health depends on more than package code; infrastructure matters too.
CHANGELOG.md is basic documentation, but the article is a useful reminder that release notes are part of good shipping hygiene.
What is the difference between == and .Equals() in C#?
The == versus .Equals() comparison is evergreen C# material, and it still deserves clarity because the edge cases are easy to miss.
What are Common Design Patterns in Node.js (Module, Singleton, Factory, etc.)
The Node.js design patterns piece is a wildcard in a .NET issue, but pattern literacy travels well across ecosystems.