Page 8 - DCAP505_MODERN_PROGRAMMING_TOOLS_AND_TECHNIQUES_II

Modern Programming Tools & Techniques – II

Notes codes compiled by C# program can run only on the .NET platform. You will be introduced to
some of the fundamental aspects and programming basics of C.
The panacea that Microsoft offers for all the above-mentioned traumas of a programmer is the
“.NET solution”. The .NET (pronounced Dot Net) framework is completely a radical change
in the way the programmers have been developing applications. .NET framework launched
by Microsoft provides a runtime and integration environment for different languages like C#,
Jscript, C and C++ along with Web Services platform. It has four main components:
1. .Net Framework and Visual Studio.Net: It is a multi-language collection of programming
tools that allows programs to write programs in different languages and to club them
together to do a task.
2. Server Infrastructure: It is a collection of applications used to build and deploy XML
services. For example, Mobile Information Server2001 to be used for mobile phones.
3. Smart Devices: It allows the use of handheld devices, laptops and PCs in the .Net
environment.
4. .Net Experiences: It provides a personal and integrated experience using XML Web Services
through smart devices.
C# is one of the programming languages included in the Visual Studio.Net version 7.0. The
.Net Platform has Common Runtime Engine and Class Libraries, therefore although C# is a new
language, it has complete access to the rich class libraries of tools such as Visual Basic and Visual
C++. C# itself does not include a class library.

The .NET Framework is a new computing platform designed to simplify application development
in the highly distributed environment of the Internet. The .NET Framework has two main
components: the common language runtime and the .NET Framework class library.

The common language runtime is the foundation of the .NET Framework. You can think of the
runtime as an agent that manages code at execution time, providing core services such as memory
management, thread management, and remoting, while also enforcing strict safety and accuracy
of the code. In fact, the concept of code management is a fundamental principle of the runtime.
Code that targets the runtime is known as managed code; code that does not target the runtime
is known as unmanaged code.
The .NET Framework class library is a comprehensive, object-oriented collection of reusable
classes that you can use to develop applications ranging from traditional command-line or
Graphical User Interface (GUI) applications to applications based on the latest innovations
provided by ASP.NET and Web Services.
The .NET Framework also provides several runtime hosts, which are unmanaged components
that load the common language runtime into their processes and initiate the execution of managed
code, thereby creating a software environment that can exploit both managed and unmanaged
features. The .NET Framework SDK not only provides several runtime hosts, but also supports
the development of third-party runtime hosts.

Example: ASP.NET hosts the runtime to provide a scalable, server-side environment
for managed code. ASP.NET works directly with the runtime to enable .aspx pages and Web
Services, both of which are discussed later in this topic.
The core features provided by the .NET platform are:
1. Interoperability with existing code: The existing COM binaries can be fully re-used into a
.NET application and vice-versa.
2. Total language integration: .NET supports cross-language inheritance, cross-language
exceptional handling and cross-language debugging features.

2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY