What is Microsoft .NET Framework?

What is Microsoft .NET Framework?

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Microsoft .NET Framework is a computing platform for building applications using .NET. It simplifies application development in a distributed environment. The .NET Framework provides an object-oriented programming model that enables developers to build all types of applications, such as Windows-based applications, Web services etc.

The .NET Framework provides four interoperable common language specification (CLS) compliant languages:

1. Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
2. Microsoft Visual C# .NET
3. Microsoft Visual J# .NET
4. Microsoft Visual C++ .NET

The compilers of these languages generate an intermediate code that is known as Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL). MSIL makes an application written in any CLS-compliant language interoperable.

The .NET Framework supports cross-language inheritance and allows language interoperability. Developers can create classes using any language that is supported by the .NET Framework and reuse them in classes written in other .NET supported languages.

The following image displays the components of the .NET Framework:



The .NET Framework class library and common language runtime are two main components of the .NET Framework.

The common language runtime provides the runtime environment for applications. It also provides various runtime services, such as cross-language integration, code access security, object lifetime management, and debugging and profiling support.

The .NET Framework class library is a CLS-compliant library consisting of classes, interfaces, and value types that are included in the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK.

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