The .NET Framework



The .NET framework comprises of a runtime (called the CLR: The Common Langauge Runtime) and an extensive set of libraries built on top of it.

The runtime includes a fast Just-In-Time compiler (JIT) and is optimised for multi-threading with multi-core processors. It provides built-in garbage collection and security features.

The framework classes include the core libraries (the BCL: Base Class Libraries) and libraries for just about every aspect of development. For desktop application development, the Windows Forms libraries are very rich. Further libraries have been added with the release of .NET 3 which is available for Windows XP and included in Vista.

The .NET framework itself only runs on WIndows, but there is a cross-platform implementation called Mono.

The .NET framework is documented in the .NET Developer Centre.

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