Microsoft. NET is one of the latest and new technologies introduced by Microsoft Corporation. Nowadays we use to connect to the internet using a computer and a remote computer responses via a web page and a collection of web pages are called as Web Sites. The Concept in .NET is that these websites can integrate with other sites and services using Standard Protocols like HTTP.
Microsoft .NET Platform comprises of four core components such as:
- NET Building Block Services such as file storage, calendar called Passport. NET
- NET Device Software which will run on latest Internet Devices like Mobile Phones.
- NET user experience such as integrating this technology to user created documents (integrates with XML). For example if you code XML via a .NET Language like C#, it will automatically create XML document.
- NET infrastructure which includes NET Framework (Common Language Runtime & .NET Framework Class Libraries) Microsoft Visual Studio.NET such as Visual Basic.NET ,Visual C++.NET etc NET Enterprise Servers and Microsoft Windows. NET.
We can build robust, scalable, distributed applications with the help of .NET and the part that helps us to develop these applications is called the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework contains Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the .NET Framework class libraries also called as Base Class Libraries.
All the .NET languages (like C-sharp, VisualBasic.NET, Visual C++. NET etc) have the .NET Framework class libraries built into them. The .NET class Libraries also supports File I/O, database operations, XML (Extensible Markup Language) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). For example you can develop XML Pages by using C-sharp language.
When someone talks about .NET development, then you should understand that they are talking about .NET Framework. It includes a Runtime environment and a set of Class Libraries which is being used by a new language called C-sharp abbreviated as C# (more or less similar to C/C++/Java family of languages) and all other .NET Languages. Simply speaking C-sharp is a new language for developing custom solutions for Microsoft's .NET Platform.
The runtime which we discussed just now is also used by VisualStudio.NET. Visual Studio.NET Provides us with a visual environment to design and develop .NET Applications. Every language in VisualStudio.NET uses this runtime to execute its applications. Moreover these languages compiles its source code into an intermediate language upon compilation. Hence you can very well use a module written using C-sharp in a Visual Basic Application. For example you can design a user interface with Visual Basic.NET and write a DLL function using C-sharp.
