Microsoft is getting closer to the official release of the .NET 9 developer platform. Today, the company revealed the first release candidate version of .NET 9 is now available for download.
In a blog post, Microsoft listed some of the new features and improvements in the .NET 9 RC 1 release. That includes some enhanced WebSocket APIs. In a separate post on the .NET 9 RCI release notes, Microsoft stated:
We"ve added new APIs on ClientWebSocketOptions and WebSocketCreationOptions that let you opt-in to sending WebSocket pings, and abort the connection if the peer does not respond in time.
Until now, you could specify a KeepAliveInterval to keep the connection from staying idle, but there was no built-in mechanism to enforce that the peer is responding.
The SDK in this new release includes a feature called Workload History. In more support notes, Microsoft says:
This command will show the history of workload installations or modifications for a given .NET SDK installation, including the versions of the workloads that were installed, and when they were installed. This command will help you understand the drift in workload installations over time, and help you make informed decisions about which workloads versions to set your installation to.
You can check out the details and more support links to what"s new and improved in .NET 9 RC 1 in the blog post and you can get the new version by downloading the .NET 9 SDK now. Microsoft also recommends installing the latest version of the Visual Studio 2022 preview release, as .NET 9 can now be installed via the Visual Studio installer.
Microsoft says there will be a second Release Candidate version of .NET 9 launched before it finally leaves its preview status and becomes generally available. The company also announced today that it launched a public preview of UWP (Universal Windows Platform) support for .NET 9.