DevPapers - article Introduction to Microsoft's .NET Platform

MICROSOFT.NET is Microsoft's newly redesigned, revolutionary software programming architecture aimed to create Applications which are e-enabled to work on the Internet where they are termed as service. MICROSOFT.NET is Microsoft's first step towards this technology. Microsoft has tried to build a new era of programming architecture with the introduction of MICROSOFT.NET. This would be the most productive environment for businesses that want to develop complex Internet enabled applications. This is aimed at making a user's PC connect with all other desperate wireless devices affecting every piece of application code written. One can be sure of a richer computing experience with this technology because of its integration with smart devices and information agents. That is why Microsoft decided to rebuild this new platform from the ground-up.
ASP.NET is not just another upgrade or the next version of ASP. It is a unified web development platform that provides necessary services for developers to build Enterprise Web based Applications. ASP.NET allows you to use a full featured programming language such as C# or VB.NET to build web applications easily. Essentially ASP.NET code comprises of compiled code unlike traditional ASP code which is interpreted thus making it more efficient in terms of execution speed. OOPS features in ASP.NET. This helps in easy maintainability and reusability of code. As mentioned earlier, ASP.NET seamlessly integrates different programming languages without any fear of compatibility issues for these different languages. The whole idea is to keep the code separate from its implementation. That is the basic idea behind MICROSOFT.NET.
C# is a simple, modern, object oriented, and type-safe programming language derived from C and C++. C# (pronounced "C sharp") is firmly planted in the C and C++ family tree of languages, and will immediately be familiar to C and C++ programmers. C# is built specifically to program the MICROSOFT.NET framework. The .NET framework consists of a run-time environment known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR), and a set of class libraries, which provide a rich development platform that can be exploited by a variety of languages and tools. C# aims to combine the high productivity of Visual Basic and the raw power of C++. C# is provided as part of Microsoft Visual Studio 7.0. In addition to C#, Visual Studio supports Visual Basic, Visual C++, and the scripting languages VBScript and JScript. All of these languages provide access to the Microsoft .NET platform, which includes a common execution engine and a rich class library. For C# developers, even though C# is a new language, it has complete access to the same rich class libraries that are used by seasoned tools such as Visual Basic and Visual C++. C# itself does not include a class library. It's built with the Web in mind and claims to provide an environment that's in sync with HTML, XML, and SOAP.