Chapter 2: What Is .NET?

Defining and Connecting the Dots

This chapter marks a significant milestone. You are now one quarter of the way into Part One of this book. Why is that a significant milestone? It just happens that Part One ("The Mainframe Paradigm Shift") focuses on preparing you for your .NET retraining effort. Therefore, you have progressed a quarter of the way toward your retraining preparation. So, congratulations! Now, what will you need to do to complete your preparation? Well, that is where this chapter comes in.

This chapter will provide you with a full definition of .NET. While revolving around the question of "What is .NET?", I will discuss several answers to that question. The .NET definitions will include everything from the basic programming aspects of .NET and the new .NET development tools to new .NET concerns centered on XML and Web services. To finish the chapter off, you will stretch your view of .NET to even include portions of the .NET platform that deal with enterprise servers, your career, and marketing concerns.

As you have deduced , this chapter will fulfill yet another quarter of your retraining preparation. The two chapters that follow this one (Chapters 3 and 4) will complete the remaining half of your retraining preparation. The four chapters in Part One of this book will have fully presented to you the mainframe paradigm shift.

Note  

This chapter is designed to introduce you to the scope of. NET, and it does not contain any code samples. Part Two of this book provides you with hands-on programming examples. There, you will find an ample supply of programming code samples.