Before we go any further, it will be useful to understand what features the .NET Platform provides to us, which we can use to create different types of software and services. The various features provided by Microsoft’s .NET Platform are as follows:
Object-Oriented Programming
The .NET Framework is completely developed on the basis of the Pure Object-Oriented Programming Paradigm, due to which the applications developed in it can be easily extended. Also, Complex Software is also easy to design and manage on the basis of OOPS Concepts.
Multiple Language Support
The .NET Platform basically supports VB.NET and C#, while C# has been developed for the .NET Platform. But apart from this .NET Platform also supports C++.
Also, following the .NET Specification, many other programming languages , such as Python, Ruby, etc., have also been designed in such a way that we can develop application software using .NET Framework even by using these languages.
Not only this, whoever generates MSIL code following the Programming Language .NET Specification, can share the codes written in all programming languages with each other.
For example, if we create a class by C# Coding, then we can very easily use it to create an object in the program of VB.NET, and we do not need to follow any kind of specification.
That is, we can directly use the code of any .NET Supported Programming Language in any other .NET Supported Programming Language without any modification. This process is known as Interoperability in .NET.
COM Based Easy Development
COM Based Components can be created more easily using .NET Framework because now we have to use any COM Interface like IUnknown to access any Component or Locate any COM Component by Windows Registry No need to do. Because the CLR of the .NET Framework also contains the version information of all COM objects in the form of metadata.
Also, the concept of code sharing is based on the assembly in .NET, which travels the version information of the COM component and various other data as the header of the COM component assembly.
Simple Application Deployment
Deploying .NET applications is easy because .NET applications do not require any kind of registration, the way COM specification-based applications used to.
Rich Base Class Library Support
Along with the .NET Framework, Base Class Libraries are also installed, which provide various types of OOPS Classes related to fulfilling different types of Basic Requirements for any .NET Application. At the same time, internally, these classes themselves use Win32 API Functions to fulfill different types of needs.
Rich Framework Class Library Support
The OOPS Classes that the .NET Framework provides in the form of BCL all those classes are actually a part of .NET’s Framework Class Library, which are necessary to bring any .NET application to the working state.
Whereas .NET is used in the form of Framework Class Library to develop a lot of other classes like Windows Forms and WPF, to create Web Services, WCF to create Web Applications, to develop GUI, to meet different types of Specific Requirements. For ASP.NET, ADO.NET to create database applications, CF to create software for smart devices, Silverlight to create applications for Web Browser and Windows Phone 7, Windows Azure to create cloud applications, etc.
Unified Runtime Infrastructure
The core of the .NET Framework contains a Virtual Machine named CLR, which defines a Unified Runtime Infrastructure to create MSIL. This generated MSIL is shared by various .NET Supported Programming Languages which run during Just-In-Time Compilation and convert into Native Machine Code.
In addition, there are many other parts of this infrastructure such as Garbage Collector, Assembly Loading Services, Debugging Services, Threading Services, IO Services, etc., which are used from time to time during the life cycle of the application to meet the various requirements. But are executed.
Interoperability with Existing Code
Although the .NET Platform is designed to completely replace all the old technology, it still has the ability to reuse the software components created on the basis of other old technologies such as COM Specification or Win32 API Functions. There is an arrangement, which is known as P/Invoke in the .NET Framework.
Exception Handling
.NET Framework defines a technique called Exception Handling for error handling, which is completely similar to the Exception Handling Mechanism of C++ and Java.
Improved Security
With the development of the web, the security of code deployment has also emerged as a very serious problem. Therefore Built-In Security Mechanism has been created for Code Access Security (CAS) in .NET Framework, which protects our code in various ways.
Web Services Capabilities
Since the inception of the .NET Framework, the .NET Platform has been designed to support Cross-Platform Remote Procedure Calls Based Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Web Services and Extensible Markup Language (XML) in a modern way. At the same time, these features are defined as part of the programming paradigm so that .NET programmers do not have to follow any different programming patterns to develop these different types of applications.
Professional Tools and Support
Microsoft has developed .NET Framework as well as an IDE named Visual Studio, which not only makes .NET Framework-based professional development easy, but by using it, we can configure various types of technical configurations again and again. are saved from, due to which our development becomes faster because Visual Studio provides us with various types of tools related to Rapid Application Development like Visual Basic Programming Language.
Using Visual Studio, not only do we design and create our .NET applications in a manageable way, but we also handle different types of files related to our applications in one place as a project, which makes software development a lot easier.
In addition, Visual Studio provides us with all the facilities and tools related to Software Design Create, Manage, Debug, Error Handling, Building, Packaging, and Deployment, due to which we are using Advance Programming Languages like VB.NET and C#. Get the ability to develop software in a very rapid way.
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