Introduction to top level C#

What is top level C#

Since dotnet 5.0 (C# 9.0), you have been able to write your main function without a class nor main function. This would mean that an entire C# file could just contain:

using System;
Console.WriteLine("Hello world");

and it will compile.

So why use TLCS?

TLCS (Top Level C Sharp) is a tool designed to make that even more simple, as previously you would still need a .csproj file for the .cs file to run. With TLCS, all you need to do is type,

tlcs Program.cs

and your C# file will run like butter!

How does it work?

Simple, TLCS creates a dotnet repository in %tmp%, and puts your code in there to run, overwriting that temp file every time a new file is run. Because of this, TLCS has all of the features of C#, and more!