Azure & Office 365

Posts Tagged ‘what is .net’

.NET(Network Enabled Technology) is a software framework created by Microsoft that primarily runs on windows operating system.NET provides tools and libraries that allow developers to develop applications and services much easily, faster and secure by using a convenient way.

The .NET Framework is designed to fulfill the following objectives:

• To provide a consistent object-oriented programming environment whether object code is stored and executed locally, executed locally but Internet-distributed, or executed remotely.
• To provide a code-execution environment that minimizes software deployment and versioning conflicts.
• To provide a code-execution environment that promotes safe execution of code, including code created by an unknown or semi-trusted third party.
• To provide a code-execution environment that eliminates the performance problems of scripted or interpreted environments.
• To make the developer experience consistent across widely varying types of applications, such as Windows-based applications and Web-based applications.
• To build all communication on industry standards to ensure that code based on the .NET Framework can integrate with any other code.

The main two components of .Net Framework are Common Language Runtime (CLR) and .Net Framework Class Library (FCL).

Common Language Runtime (CLR)
CLR is the heart of .net Framework.The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is an Execution Environment.The common language runtime manages memory, thread execution, code execution, code safety verification, compilation, and other system services.

It has four main features :
CIL(Common Intermediate Language):During compilation of code, the source code is translated into CIL code rather than into platform- or processor-specific object code. CIL is a CPU- and platform-independent instruction set that can be executed in any environment supporting the Common Language Infrastructure,such as the .NET runtime on Windows, or the cross-platform Mono runtime. In theory, this eliminates the need to distribute different executable files for different platforms and CPU types. CIL code is verified for safety during runtime, providing better security and reliability than natively compiled executable files.
The execution process looks like this:

• Source code is converted to CIL
• CIL is then assembled into a form of so-called bytecode and a CLI assembly is created.
• Upon execution of a CLI assembly, its code is passed through the runtime’s JIT compiler to generate native code. Ahead-of-time compilation may also be used, which eliminates this step, but at the cost of executable-file portability.
• The computer’s processor executes the native code.

Code Verification:The runtime also enforces code robustness by implementing a strict type-and-code-verification infrastructure called the common type system (CTS). Common Type System (CTS) describes a set of types that can be used in different .Net languages in common . That is , the Common Type System (CTS) ensure that objects written in different .Net languages can interact with each other.For Communicating between programs written in any .NET complaint language, the types have to be compatible on the basic level .These types can be Value Types or Reference Types . The Value Types are passed by values and stored in the stack. The Reference Types are passed by references and stored in the heap. Common Type System (CTS) provides base set of Data Types which is responsible for cross language integration. The Common Language Runtime (CLR) can load and execute the source code written in any .Net language, only if the type is described in the Common Type System (CTS) .
Code Access Security:The runtime enforces code access security. For example, users can trust that an executable embedded in a Web page can play an animation on screen or sing a song, but cannot access their personal data, file system, or network. The security features of the runtime thus enable legitimate Internet-deployed software to be exceptionally feature rich.
Garbage Collection:The .NET Framework’s garbage collector manages the allocation and release of memory for your application. Each time you create a new object, the common language runtime allocates memory for the object from the managed heap. As long as address space is available in the managed heap, the runtime continues to allocate space for new objects. However, memory is not infinite. Eventually the garbage collector must perform a collection in order to free some memory. The garbage collector’s optimizing engine determines the best time to perform a collection, based upon the allocations being made. When the garbage collector performs a collection, it checks for objects in the managed heap that are no longer being used by the application and performs the necessary operations to reclaim their memory.

.Net Framework Class Library (FCL)
The .NET Framework class library is a collection of reusable types that tightly integrate with the common language run-time.It consists of namespaces, classes, interfaces, and data types included in the .NET Framework.
The .NET FCL forms the base on which applications, controls and components are built in .NET. It can be used for developing applications such as console applications, Windows GUI applications, ASP.NET applications, Windows and Web services, workflow-enabled applications, service oriented applications using Windows Communication, XML Web services, etc.

.NET framework is a huge ocean.Hopefully, this article has explained some of the terms in the .NET platform and how it works.

For more details visit this link :

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh425099%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework