NET Framework Developer(s) Microsoft Stable release 3.5.30729.1 (3.5 SP1) / 2008-08-11; 13 months ago Preview release 4.

0 (4.0 B1) / 2009-05-20; 4 months ago Operating system Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98 and above Type Software framework License MS-EULA, BCL under Microsoft Reference License[1] Website msdn.microsoft.com/netframework The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that can be installed on co mputers running Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large library of coded solutions to common programming problems and a virtual machine that ma nages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. The .NET Framework is a Microsoft offering and is intended to be used by most new applic ations created for the Windows platform.

Principal design features Interoperability Because interaction between new and older applications is commonly required, the .NET Framework provides means to access functionality that is implemented in pr ograms that execute outside the .NET environment. Access to COM components is pr ovided in the System.Runtime.InteropServices and System.EnterpriseServices names paces of the framework; access to other functionality is provided using the P/In voke feature. Common Runtime Engine The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the virtual machine component of the .NET f ramework. All .NET programs execute under the supervision of the CLR, guaranteei ng certain properties and behaviors in the areas of memory management, security, and exception handling. Language Independence The .NET Framework introduces a Common Type System, or CTS. The CTS specificatio n defines all possible datatypes and programming constructs supported by the CLR and how they may or may not interact with each other. Because of this feature, the .NET Framework supports the exchange of instances of types between programs written in any of the .NET languages. This is discussed in more detail in Micros oft .NET Languages. Base Class Library The Base Class Library (BCL), part of the Framework Class Library (FCL), is a li brary of functionality available to all languages using the .NET Framework. The BCL provides classes which encapsulate a number of common functions, including f ile reading and writing, graphic rendering, database interaction and XML documen t manipulation. Simplified Deployment The .NET framework includes design features and tools that help manage the insta llation of computer software to ensure that it does not interfere with previousl y installed software, and that it conforms to security requirements. Security The design is meant to address some of the vulnerabilities, such as buffer overf lows, that have been exploited by malicious software. Additionally, .NET provide s a common security model for all applications. Portability The design of the .NET Framework allows it to theoretically be platform agnostic , and thus cross-platform compatible. That is, a program written to use the fram ework should run without change on any type of system for which the framework is implemented. Microsoft's commercial implementations of the framework cover Wind ows, Windows CE, and the Xbox 360.[4] In addition, Microsoft submits the specifi

cations for the Common Language Infrastructure (which includes the core class li braries, Common Type System, and the Common Intermediate Language),[5][6][7] the C# language,[8] and the C++/CLI language[9] to both ECMA and the ISO, making th em available as open standards. This makes it possible for third parties to crea te compatible implementations of the framework and its languages on other platfo rms.

[edit] .NET vs. Java and Java EE See also: Comparison of the Java and .NET platforms and Comparison of C# and Jav a The CLI and .NET languages such as C# and VB have many similarities to Sun's JVM and Java. They are strong competitors. Both are based on a virtual machine mode l that hides the details of the computer hardware on which their programs run. B oth use their own intermediate byte-code, Microsoft calling theirs Common Interm ediate Language (CIL; formerly MSIL) and Sun calling theirs Java bytecode. On .N ET the byte-code is always compiled before execution, either Just In Time (JIT) or in advance of execution using the ngen.exe utility. With Java the byte-code i s either interpreted, compiled in advance, or compiled JIT. Both provide extensi ve class libraries that address many common programming requirements and address many security issues that are present in other approaches. The namespaces provi ded in the .NET Framework closely resemble the platform packages in the Java EE API Specification in style and invocation. .NET in its complete form (i.e., Microsoft's implementation, described in the St andardization and licensing section of this article) can only be installed on co mputers running a Microsoft Windows operating system[39][40][41] whereas Java in its entirety can be installed on computers running any one of a variety of oper ating systems such as Linux, Solaris, Mac OS or Windows.[42] From its beginning .NET has supported multiple programming languages and at its core remains platfo rm agnostic and standardized so that other vendors can implement it on other pla tforms (although Microsoft's implementation only targets Windows, Windows CE, an d Xbox platforms). The Java platform was initially built to support only the Jav a language on many operating system platforms under the slogan "Write once, run anywhere." Other programming languages have been implemented on the Java Virtual Machine[43] but are less widely used (see JVM languages). Sun's reference implementation of Java (including the class library, the compile r, the virtual machine, and the various tools associated with the Java Platform) is open source under the GNU GPL license with Classpath exception.[44] The sour ce code for the .NET framework base class library is available for reference pur poses only under the Microsoft Reference License.[45][46] The third-party Mono Project, sponsored by Novell, has been developing an open s ource implementation of the ECMA standards that are part of .NET Framework, as w ell as most of the other non-ECMA standardized libraries in Microsoft's .NET. Th e Mono implementation is meant to run on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, BSD, HP-UX, a nd Windows platforms. Mono includes the CLR, the class libraries, and compilers for C# and VB.NET. The current version supports all the APIs in version 2.0 of M icrosoft's .NET. Full support exists for C# 3.0 LINQ to Objects and LINQ to Xml. [47]