C# and WebAssembly: Building High-Performance Web Applications with .NET

WebAssembly (WASM) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine, which allows high-performance execution of code on the web. One of the interesting possibilities of WebAssembly is the ability to run non-javascript languages such as C, C++, Rust on the web. That's where C# comes in, as it can be transpiled to WebAssembly making it possible to create high-performance web applications with C# and .NET.

In this tutorial, we'll explore how to use C# and WebAssembly to build high-performance web applications.

Setting up the development environment

 To get started, you will need the .NET Core SDK and the Blazor WebAssembly templates installed on your machine. The .NET Core SDK can be downloaded from the official website, and the Blazor WebAssembly templates can be installed using the dotnet new command.

Creating a new Blazor WebAssembly project

 Once you have the development environment set up, you can create a new Blazor WebAssembly project using the dotnet new blazorwasm command. This will create a new project with a sample Hello World application that you can use as a starting point.

Building the C# code

To build the C# code, you will use the Mono runtime, which is a cross-platform, open-source implementation of the .NET framework. Mono can be used to compile C# code to a variety of platforms, including WebAssembly.

Using C# in the browser

 Once the C# code is compiled to WebAssembly, it can be loaded and executed directly in the browser. This allows you to use C# code to perform complex tasks on the client-side, such as interacting with the DOM, making network requests, and accessing web APIs.

Communication with JS

WebAssembly code runs inside a separate thread and doesn't have direct access to the DOM, this means that you need to create a way to communicate with the JavaScript code. Blazor uses JavaScript Interop to communicate between C# and JavaScript.

Debugging and troubleshooting 

Debugging C# code running on WebAssembly is a bit different than debugging regular C# code. One of the ways to debug is by adding the “mono_wasm_enable_debugging” flag on the browser’s developer console

In conclusion, C# and WebAssembly allows you to build high-performance web applications with .NET. With the power of C#, you can use existing .NET libraries and frameworks, and take advantage of the latest web technologies to create fast and responsive web applications. With the help of this tutorial, you will be able to set up your development environment, create a new Blazor WebAssembly project, and understand how C# runs on the web using WebAssembly.