Components of the .NET Platform

<< Source Files and Compilers | Automatic Memory Management >>

2.5 Understanding the various components of the .NET Platform
and the functions performed by them

Now we will go in detail about the various components that build the .NET framework
and its functionalities.

Common Language Runtime

At the core of the .NET platform is the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR
simplifies application development, provides a robust and secure execution
environment, supports multiple languages and simplifies application deployment and

management.

The diagram below provides more details on the CLR's features:

In this section we will cover some of the more significant features provided to .NET
applications by the CLR. These include:

Memory Management

Common Type System

Before moving further let us discuss briefly about Common Language
Infrastructure(CLI) according to Standardizing Information and Communication
Systems(ECMA) specifications.

The Microsoft Shared Source CLI Implementation is a

file archive containing working source code for the ECMA-334 (C#) and ECMA-335
(Common Language Infrastructure, or CLI) standards. In addition to the CLI

implementation and the C# compiler, the Shared Source CLI Implementation from
Microsoft called ROTOR contains tools, utilities, additional Framework classes, and
samples.

For the benefit of existing codebases, the CLI standard also takes pains to describe
in detail how unmanaged software can co-exist safely with managed components,

enabling seamless sharing of computing resources and responsibilities.