.NET 8: Make `Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk` an implicit reference

The Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk PackageReference is a pain w/o obvious value. Presumably, everyone wants to have the matching PackageReference for their .NET SDK and/or VS version. That’s not the default experience due to the PackageReference.

As a symptom of that, this package is one that dependabot has to update most. Example: https://github.com/dotnet/iot/pull/1556.

It would be great if we could (somehow) make packages we update monthly as implicit PackageReferences.

There is no design here (and I haven’t thought about it). This is just a UX pain.

[richlander]

Here’s the relevant part of a test project:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>

    <IsPackable>false</IsPackable>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="16.11.0" />

Ideally, we could just switch the first line to do what you said:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk">

Right?

[Nirmal4G]

Out of all features proposed for .NET 8, this would be the most useful and underrated feature ever. It would merely take an hour or so to move, rework the .NET Test SDK into dotnet/sdk repo. This could’ve been done in .NET 5. I don’t understand why the team didn’t and dragged this on till v8!?