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Modern Programming Tools & Techniques-III

Notes
Figure 1.2: CLR

Source: http://dotnetslackers.com/articles/sql/Introduction-to-CLR-Database-Objects.aspx
1.3.2 Managed Execution

The .NET CLR provides a common context within which all .NET applications execute, regardless
of the language in which they are written. CLR is responsible for handling every aspects of the
managed code such as memory and resource management, secure environment to run in, garbage
collection , access to the operating systems services etc. Code that targets the CLR is commonly
known as managed code. The managed execution process includes the following steps:
1. Choosing a proper compiler
2. Generating MSIL code
3. Compiling MSIL to CPU specific native code using JIT
4. Executing the processor specific code.
Every constructs (such as class, struct, etc. ) in every .NET languages must compile to CLR
compatible types to qualify as .NET managed code. You can choose compilers such as Visual
Basic, C#, Visual C++, JScript, or one of many third-party compilers like Eiffel, Perl, or COBOL
compiler. CLR supports a wide variety of data types and language features. It is not mandatory
to include all the CLR features in every .NET enabled languages, but the exposed language
features should be compatible with the standard .NET frame work. If your component is targeted
to use by components written in other .NET languages, your component’s exported types must
expose only language features that are included in the Common Language Specification (CLS).

1.3.3 Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)

MSIL Code Generation is the first level of .NET compilation in which the high-level compiled in
to a language called Intermediate Language (IL). The IL code look more like machine code than

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