1.1. The .NET PlatformWhen Microsoft announced C# in July 2000, its unveiling was part of a much larger event: the announcement of the .NET platform. C# 2.0 represents the maturation of that language and coincides with the release of the next generation of tools for .NET. The .NET platform is a development framework that provides a new application programming interface (API) to the services and APIs of classic Windows operating systems while bringing together a number of disparate technologies that emerged from Microsoft during the late 1990s. This includes COM+ component services, a commitment to XML and object-oriented design, support for new web services protocols such as SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI, and a focus on the Internet, all integrated within the Distributed interNet Applications (DNA) architecture. Microsoft has devoted enormous resources to the development of .NET and its associated technologies. The results of this commitment to date are impressive. For one thing, the scope of .NET is huge. The platform consists of three product groups:
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