Explain Architecture Of .Net Framework

• .NET is a framework to develop software applications. It is designed and developed by Microsoft and the first beta version released in 2000.
• It is used to develop applications for web, Windows, phone. Moreover, it provides a broad range of functionalities and support.

·The .NET Framework is composed of four main components:

1)Common Language Runtime (CLR)

2)Framework Class Library (FCL),

3)Core Languages (WinForms, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET)

4)Other Modules (WCF, WPF, WF, Card Space, LINQ, Entity Framework, Parallel LINQ, Task Parallel Library, etc.)

1. CLR (Common Language Runtime)

• It is a program execution engine that loads and executes the program. 
• It converts the program into native code.
• It acts as an interface between the framework and operating system. 
• It does exception handling, memory management, and garbage collection. Moreover, it provides security, type-safety, interoperability, and portablility. 

A list of CLR components are given below:

• CLR is the basic and Virtual Machine component of the .NET Framework.
• It is the run-time enviornment in the .NET Framework that runs the codes and helps in making the development process easier by providing the various services.

2)FCL (Framework Class Library)

• it is a standard library that is a collection of thousands of classes and used to build an application. The BCL (Base Class Library) is the core of the FCL and provides basic functionalities.

It contains thousands of classes that supports the following functions.

• Base and user-defined data types
• Support for exceptions handling
• input/output and stream operations
• Communications with the underlying system
• Access to data
• Ability to create Windows-based GUI applications
• Ability to create web-client and server applications
• Support for creating web services

3) MSIL:-

• Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) is a language used as the output of a number of compilers (C#, VB, .NET, and so forth).

• In the traditional compilation process, the executable file is binary and can be executed by the operating system immediately.

• However, in the managed environment of .NET, the file produced by the compiler (the C# compiler in our case) is not an executable binary.

• Instead, it is an assembly, which contains metadata and intermediate language (IL) code.

• The C# compiler produces IL as part of an assembly’s output.

• This is the responsibility of the JIT compiler.

• The JIT compiler only compiles code before the first time that it executes.

• After the IL is compiled to machine code by the JIT compiler, the CLR holds the compiled code in a working set.

4)CLS:-

• CLS stands for Common Language Specification and it is a subset of CTS.

•  It defines a set of rules and restrictions that every language must follow which runs under the .NET framework.

• The languages which follow these set of rules are said to be CLS Compliant.

• In simple words, CLS enables cross-language integration or Interoperability.

• Common Language Specification (CLS) defines the rules and standards to which languages on dotnet platform must adhere to in order to be compatible with other .

• NET languages. Because of CLS in CLR it enables C# developers to inherit from classes defined in VB.NET or other .NET compatible languages.

• This is one big advantage working with CLR environment and dotnet languages.

5)CTS:-

• CTS stands for Common Type System. It defines the rules which Common Language Runtime follows when declaring, using, and managing types.

The common type system performs the following functions:

1. It enables cross-language integration, type safety, and high-performance code execution.
2. It provides an object-oriented model for the implementation of many programming languages.
3. It defines rules that every language must follow which runs under .NET framework. It ensures that objects written in different .NET languages like C#, VB.NET, F# etc. can interact with each other.

• The common type system defines how types are declared, used, and managed in the common language runtime, and is also an important part of the runtime's support for cross-language integration.

• Common Type System (CTS) is a standard that specifies how type definitions and specific values of types are represented in computer memory.

• It is intended to allow programs written in different programming languages to easily share information