Section 1.2. The .NET Platform

1.2. The .NET Platform

When Microsoft announced C# 1.0 in July 2000, its unveiling was part of a much larger event: the announcement of the .NET platform . The .NET platform is a development framework that provides a new way to create Windows applications. However, .NET goes beyond traditional Windows programming to facilitate creating web applications quickly and easily.

Microsoft reportedly devoted 80% of its research and development budget to .NET and its associated technologies. The results of this commitment were very impressive. In 2005, Microsoft rolled out Version 2 of the language, the platform, and the tools. Their goal was to radically reduce the amount of boilerplate code you have to write, and to make the creation of web and desktop applications easier by "encapsulating" much of the "plumbing" of a typical application in objects.

That means that rather than writing a lot of the code to connect to databases, the Internet, or your filesystem, .NET provides fully tested controls that you can drag onto your form, and they will do all the heavy lifting for you.

The scope of .NET is huge. The platform consists of three separate product groups:

• A set of languages, including C# and Visual Basic 2005; a set of development tools, including Visual Studio 2005; and powerful tools for building applications, including the Common Language Runtime (CLR), a platform for compiling, debugging, and executing .NET applications.

• A set of .NET Enterprise Servers, including SQL Server 2005, Exchange, BizTalk, and so on, that provide specialized functionality for relational data storage, email, B2B (business-to-business) commerce, etc.

• New .NET-enabled non-PC devices, from cell phones to game boxes.