Tag: comparison

Three ways to push work onto the thread pool in C#, and which one to reach for. Use Task.Run for almost everything, ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem<TState> for allocation-free fire-and-forget, and Task.Factory.StartNew only for LongRunning or a custom scheduler.

For read-heavy paths in .NET 11, plain EF Core with AsNoTracking is within ~5% of Dapper. Reach for compiled queries on a profiled single-row hot path, and Dapper only for the lowest latency or SQL LINQ can't express.

Never new up HttpClient per request. Use IHttpClientFactory to manage lifetime, and add Refit on top when you want a typed interface instead of hand-written request code. Raw singleton HttpClient is fine only for the simplest cases.

For new code, plain service classes are the better default. MediatR's July 2025 license change matters only if you sit above the $5M Community threshold or refuse the RPL-1.5 copyleft. Keep MediatR when pipeline behaviors are load-bearing.

Plain JIT with Dynamic PGO wins steady-state throughput, ReadyToRun cuts startup with zero code changes, and Native AOT gives the smallest, fastest-starting binary at the cost of reflection and dynamic code. Pick by deployment shape, not raw benchmarks.

Pick System.Text.Json for new .NET 11 code: it ships in-box, is roughly 2x faster, and is the only one that works with Native AOT. Reach for Newtonsoft.Json only for JSONPath, TypeNameHandling, or genuinely lenient JSON.

ConfigureAwait(false) is still mandatory in library code that may run under a SynchronizationContext (WinForms, WPF, MAUI). In application code on ASP.NET Core, a console app, or a worker service running on .NET 11, it is a no-op.

Three sequence interfaces, three execution models. Use IQueryable when a database can translate the query, IAsyncEnumerable when the producer is async and you want to stream, IEnumerable for everything else in memory.

Pick minimal APIs by default in ASP.NET Core 11. Use controllers only when you need MVC features that minimal APIs still do not match: convention-based routing across many actions, MVC-style filters, or Razor views.

async Task is the default and async void is the exception. Use async void only for event handlers, top-level message-loop handlers, and a handful of framework callbacks that demand a void signature. Everywhere else, async Task wins on exceptions, composition, and testability.