Basics of .Net

In 1995 java was becoming popular because of platform independent and Sun Microsystem’s open source strategies. Java had declined the Microsoft market share. It took more then three years to develop the product, which is now known as .Net.

.Net released by Microsoft first time in Feb 13, 2002 with product name .Net Framework 1.0 along with the Visual Studio .Net 2002 IDE (Integrated Development Environment).  Nearly one year released of .Net Framework 1.0 another version of .Net released known as .Net Framework 1.1. Microsoft continued the effort make better this product and in 2005 Microsoft released the .Net Framework 2.0 with Visual Studio 2005. In Nov 19, 2007 another product 3.5 came in market with Visual Studio 2008 and latest product in .Net series is 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.

.Net Framework 2.0 consists of the CLR (common language runtime), .Net Framework Base Class Library, Windows Forms, ASP.Net, CLS (Common Language Specification), CTS (Common Type System)  and .Net Languages such as C#, VB.Net , C++.

.Net Framework 3.0 has the new features such as Windows Workflow Foundation(WF). Windows Communication Foundation and Windows CardSpace. Finally Framework 3.5 has some additional features such as LINQ, ADO.NET, AJAX.

You can make application in different programming language such as C#, VB, J#, C++ and so on. C# is the object oriented and  type safe programming language.

Common Points of Common Type System

1. CTS provides base set of data types which is responsible for cross language integration.

2. Most languages use aliases to implement those types (E.g.: C# implements int as alias for Int32).

3. CTS is categorized into two types called Value Types and Reference Types.

4. Each object in the hierarchy has the common interface.

5. Ensures Type - Safe Code.

Type - Safe Code means given a valid object reference, type-safe code can access memory at fixed offsets corresponding to actual field members.

6. Defines rules that languages must follow, which helps ensure that objects written in different languages can interact with each other.

7. Set of Base Types is called CTS.

8. Multiple Inheritance is not allowed in .NET and this can be treated as one of the rules.

9. System. Object is a common base type where all other types are derived from.

10. CTS standardizes the conventions that all the languages must follow.

11. CTS is responsible for defining types that can be used across the .NET Languages.

12. Variables that are Value Type have their own copy of the data.

13. Value Types and Reference Types, all are derived from type called System.Object.

14. Common Language Specification is the subset of Common Type System. (Defines Language rules to be followed.)

15. CTS provides types that are available to be used by programs in .NET and CLS specifies how those type are to be used in a consistent manner to ensure compatibility with other languages.