How it works...

.NET Standard 2.0 is the latest release of its kind. .NET Standard is all about sharing code. Unlike .NET Framework class libraries, .NET Standard class library code can be shared across almost all of the .NET ecosystem. The latest version of .NET Standard is 2.0. At the time of writing, it can be shared across NET Framework 4.6.1, .NET Core 2.0, Mono 5.4, Xamarin.iOS 10.14, Xamarin.Mac 3.8, Xamarin.Android 7.5, and the upcoming version of Universal Windows Platform (UWP). It also replaces Portable Class Libraries (PCLs) as the tool for building .NET libraries that work everywhere.

In steps 1 to 5, we have created a new .NET Standard 2.0-based class library project. In step 4, we have given a proper name to the class library as well as to the solution. It is good practice to give a meaningful name to the project and to the solution. In step 6, we have changed the name of the default class to HelloUniverse.cs, and it automatically changed the class name thanks to refactoring features in Visual Studio. If you look at the layout of the .NET Standard 2.0 library template, you will see a Dependencies node. In a normal .NET Framework class library, we had References. The Dependencies node will list all the dependent components for that class library. 

In step 8, we added a simple public method that takes a string parameter and returns a message with the parameter sent to the method. Finally, we checked for syntax errors and typos by building the solution.