Chapter 15: The .NET Framework Class Library

Overview

In this chapter, you will learn how to:

• What the Microsoft .NET Framework consists of

• The major components of the .NET Framework

• The main namespaces that make up the .NET Framework class library

In previous chapters, you learned how to use managed C++ to build simple applications. Now it’s time to move on to learn how to build real Microsoft .NET applications that involve GUIs, databases, Web servers, and all the other mechanisms needed by the modern Microsoft Windows application. And that’s where the .NET Framework comes in.

The .NET Framework is the new library of classes that you use to build Windows applications. It is large, quite complex, and far-reaching in its scope. This chapter will give you an overview of what the .NET Framework is and what it can do before we cover some of its features in more detail in later chapters.