INTRODUCTION TO .

NET
# What is .NET ?
.NET is an umbrella term that applies to a collection of products and technologies from Microsoft. Most have in common a dependence on the Microsoft .NET Framework. .NET is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which enables developers to use a wide variety of Programming Languages and a number of tools also known as Software Development Kit (SDK). .NET framework provides classes, interfaces and language compilers necessary to program developed using .NET. If you have machine with .NET framework installed you can run applications and also develop application even with a simple text editor.

# Objectives of .NET
To provide a consistent object-oriented environment to develop applications. To provide a code execution environment that guarantees the safety of the code that is executing. To provide a common programming model where the choice of a programming language becomes a matter of choice of programmer. To provide a friendly and consistent development environment to user across languages and applications.

# Features of .NET
OOPs Support Richer User Interface Multi-Language Support Applications are portable Easy Setup and Deployment Automatic memory management Interoperability between languages Ease of deployment and configuration Code verification and Code access security

# .NET Framework

Common Language Runtime (CLR) CLR is the execution engine for .Net applications. While the component is running, the runtime is responsible for managing memory allocation, starting up & killing threads. CLR provides many services such as: Garbage collection Code verification Code access security. Garbage collection Garbage collection is a feature that automatically manages memory. You create & use objects, but donot explicitly release them. CLR automatically releases objects when they are no longer in use. Code verification Code verification is a process that ensures all code is safe. Code verification enforces safety & therefore prevents code from performing illegal operations. If code does something wrong ,the CLR throws exception before any damage is inflicted. Such exception can be caught & handled by an application. Code access security

CLR provides this feature which allows code to be granted or denied permission to do things such as depending on security configurations. Unified Programming Classes. .Net framework provides object oriented, extensible set of class libraries (APIs). .Net framework creates a common set of APIs across all programming languages. Like C++ developers use Microsoft foundation Classes (MFCs) , java developers use Windows foundation classes(WFCs) & visual basic developers use visual basics APIs. 1. ASP.Net ASP.NET is a part of the Microsoft .NET framework, and a powerful tool for creating dynamic and interactive web pages. ASP.NET is a Microsoft Technology. ASP.NET is a program that runs inside IIS. IIS (Internet Information Services) is Microsoft's Internet server. How Does ASP.NET Work? When a browser requests an HTML file, the server returns the file. When a browser requests an ASP.NET file, IIS passes the request to the ASP.NET engine on the server. The ASP.NET engine reads the file, line by line, and executes the scripts in the file. Finally, the ASP.NET file is returned to the browser as plain HTML. Web Services Web services are designed to handle a limited set of tasks. Web services use XML based communicating protocols. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a well known standard for storing, carrying, and exchanging data. Web services are independent of operating systems. Web services are independent of programming languages. An example of a web service can be a small program designed to supply other applications with the latest stock exchange prices. Another example can be a small program designed to handle credit card payment. Benefits of Web Services Easier to communicate between applications Easier to reuse existing services Easier to distribute information to more consumers One example could be flight schedules and ticket reservation systems.

Web Forms Web Forms are based on ASP.NET. Web Forms are Web pages that serve as the user interface for a Web application. A Web Forms page presents information to the user in any browser and implements application logic using server-side code. Components of Web Forms Web forms is divided into two parts: the visual component (design page) and the logic (code behind page). The page consists of a file with static HTML, or ASP.NET server controls, or both simultaneously. The Web Forms page works as a container for the static text and the controls we want to display. The logic for the Web Forms page consists of code that we create to interact with the form. ADO.Net ADO .NET (Active X Data Object) is used as a data access. Data access is making the application interact with a database, where all the data is stored. Why ADO.Net ? ADO .NET conserves system resources and provides maximum security for databases and also has less impact on system performance. ADO .NET when interacting with the database uses XML and converts all the data into XML format for database related operations making them more efficient. Base Class Library The Base Class Library (BCL) is a standard library available to all languages (BCL) using the .NET Framework. .NET includes the BCL in order to encapsulate a large number of common functions, such as file reading and writing, graphic rendering & database interaction. Common Language Specification (CLS) Language interoperability is the ability of code to interact with code that is written using a different programming language. Language interoperability can help in code reuse and therefore, improve the efficiency of the development process.

# Compilation in .Net

To ensure that you can develop code that can be fully used by developers using any programming language, a set of language features and rules for using them called the Common Language specification (CLS) has been defined.

Before execution, the source code has to be compiled by the appropriate compiler

into an intermediate code, which is CPU independent set of instructions called MSIL, which can be converted to binary code. MSIL is then converted by a .Net framework just in time(JIT) compiler to machine code, which is CPU specific code.