In this article about top developers, we'll discuss .NET, a Microsoft framework that focuses on network transparency. In this way, Microsoft gives programmers a platform for developing and executing applications (especially for the web environment).
What is .NET?
As mentioned earlier, this framework (a conceptual and technological support structure) provides us with all the utilities and mechanisms to develop and ensure the execution of applications. One of its main functions is its components, among which the Runtime stands out, a software component whose main function is to execute applications developed in .NET (interaction with the operating system), a set of libraries (components consumed by other applications), a package of programming languages and tools (which simplify application development), and documentation and architecture guides. In this way, we can add the .NET platform (as a component) to the Windows operating system. And so the framework provides us with endless solutions for the application development framework.
The nucleus of the .NET framework
The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the true nucleus of the .NET framework. In it, applications developed in different languages are loaded, in this way the nucleus allows us to integrate projects created in different programming languages (C++, Visual Basic, C#, etc.). What this service does is compile the source code of the languages supported by .NET into an intermediate code called CIL (Common Intermediate Language). But for the tool to run on the client platform, the JIT compiler (Just-In-Time) is activated. In this way, .NET becomes a platform independent of hardware (machine code).
Characteristics of .NET
The traditional development model makes applications execute directly by the operating system, but this does not happen with the .NET platform (it is called an intermediate execution platform), since its creations are not executed directly by the operating system, but by both platforms (using the Runtime). Knowing this, we can understand its characteristics: Class loader, MSIL to native compiler, code manager, security engine, garbage collector, debugger engine, type checker, exception manager, COM packager, base class library and multithreading support.
The .NET library
The Base Class Library (BCL) is largely responsible for handling most of the basic operations involved in application development, such as data handling (ADO.NET), memory management, management of Web components that run on both server and client (ASP.NET), graphics deployment tools (GDI+), arithmetic operations, interaction with the Win32 API or Windows API, code compilation and generation, and data encryption, among others.
We could say that .NET is Microsoft's answer to the platform Oracle Corporation's Java and the various PHP-based frameworks. And the result is a universal tool that easily integrates with applications developed in other utilities, operating systems and programming languages (all thanks to its global standards).
.NET is a framework that runs under the MIT license (which allows reusing licensed software both as free software and as non-free software, allowing not releasing the changes made to the original program) and can run on Windows Server 2008 (R2, SP1 and SP2), Windows XP (not available in the latest version), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2003 (not available in the latest version), Windows Server 2012 and Windows Mobile.
