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Ian
Bill Yanaire said:A "snippit" from wikipeda:
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software component that can be added to
or is included with the Microsoft Windows operating system. It provides a
large body of pre-coded solutions to common program requirements, and
manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework.
The .NET Framework is a key Microsoft offering, and is intended to be used
by most new applications created for the Windows platform.
The pre-coded solutions that form the framework's class library cover a
large range of programming needs in areas including: user interface, data
access, database connectivity, cryptography, web application development,
numeric algorithms, and network communications. The functions of the class
library are used by programmers who combine them with their own code to
produce applications.
Programs written for the .NET Framework execute in a software environment
that manages the program's runtime requirements. This runtime environment,
which is also a part of the .NET Framework, is known as the Common
Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR provides the appearance of an application
virtual machine, so that programmers need not consider the capabilities of
the specific CPU that will execute the program. The CLR also provides
other important services such as security mechanisms, memory management,
and exception handling. The class library and the CLR together compose the
.NET Framework. The framework is intended to make it easier to develop
computer applications and to reduce the vulnerability of applications and
computers to security threats.
First released in 2002, it is included with Windows XP SP2, Windows Server
2003 and Windows Vista, and can be installed on most older versions of
Windows.