In previous articles, we have discussed what is platform dependent, what is platform independent, independency in Java, independency in .NET, most beautiful feature of .NET is Language Independency (or) Interoperability, what is .NET and its languages, technologies, servers, etc, what is Framework and development of .Net Framework, what are CLI specifications and its components, what are .NET Framework Versions available, and brief on Base class libraries, Win forms, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, WPF, WCF, WF, Card Space, LINQ, PLINQ, TPL, CLR (Common Language Runtime), Security Manager, Class Loader, JIT compiler (Just In Time), Garbage Collector, Automatic Memory Management, and Manual Memory Management. Please find below three links for accessing the articles.
CSharp.NET Tutorial - Day 1
CSharp.NET Tutorial - Day 2
CSharp.NET Tutorial - Day 3 Now, in this article we will discuss what are .NET framework versions available and their features specific to version and also discuss the most important one in .NET is Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Features of .NET
1) Language Independency
.NET framework introduces CLS and CTS where CTS specification defines all possible data types, that are supported by CLR and how they interact with each other, this allows exchanging of types between applications return using any .NET language.
2) Base Class Library
BCL is a library of functionalities available to all languages using the .NET framework. BCL provides a number of common functions which include file reading and writing graphics and animations, database interactions, networking operations etc.
3) Portability
The design of .NET framework allows it theoretically to be platform independent i.e., a program written to use the framework should run without any change on any type of system, for which the framework is implemented.
4) Security
The design of .NET is meant to address some of the problems such as buffer overflow that have been exploited by malicious software. Additionally, .NET provides a common security model for all applications.
5) Common Runtime Engine
The CLR is the execution engine of the .NET framework and all .NET programs execute under the supervision of CLR guaranteeing certain properties and behaviour in the area of Memory management security and runtime error handling.
6) Simplified Deployment
The .NET framework includes design features and tools that help managing of installation of computer software to ensure the required security.
COM (Component Object Model)
It is a specification which tells never build software as a Monolithic (Single) unit, inspite it advises the software by dividing into smaller libraries and then integrates as software.
A COM specification is adopted from building software maintenance become easier as well as provides reusability of components (library).
The drawback of COM components are OS dependency that is they can be used only on Windows Operating System.
COM Interoperability
Making use of older code in the newer applications and new code in the older applications is commonly required. So to provide this, .NET has given the provision of consuming older COM libraries under .NET applications by converting them into Managed format, in the same way Managed .NET libraries can also be used in COM application development by converting them into unmanaged format.
RCW (Runtime Callable Wrapper): - This exposes unmanaged COM interfaces as .NET interfaces to a .NET application.
CCW (COM Callable Wrapper): - This exposes managed .NET interfaces as COM interfaces to COM applications.
Criticisms:
1) Applications running in managed environment required more system resources than similar applications that access machine resources more directly (Unmanaged). However some applications have proven to perform better in their managed versions when compiled unmanaged.2) CIL code and Byte Code can be easily reverse engineered than Machine code. One concern is over possible laws of trade secrets. However this can be restricted with help of obfuscation tools which are included from Visual Studio 2005.
3) In Managed environment, the frequently occurring Garbage collector for reclaiming the memory suspects the execution of the program for an unpredictable lap of time typically not more than few milliseconds.
CSharp.NET Tutorial - Day 5
This post first appeared on Dot Net Programming (C#, Asp.Net, ADO.Net, WCF, WPF, Ajax, LINQ), please read the originial post: here
