How This Book Is Organized | Microsoft .NET Kick Start

This book is organized into 16 chapters. Chapters 1 “4 provide a hands-on quick overview of the core components of the Microsoft .NET Framework ”common language runtime, programming languages, and the class library. Chapter 5 covers Visual Studio. NET, which is the most popular tool for developing .NET applications. Building on top of the previous chapter, Chapter 6 reviews the various third-party tools and components that are available as alternatives or complements to Visual Studio .NET.

Next is where the fun starts. Chapters 7 “10 apply core understanding and utilize the .NET programming model and tools to develop Windows applications, Web applications, Web services, and mobile applications.

No application is developed or deployed by itself. Integration is increasingly becoming an important aspect of development, rather than an afterthought. Chapters 11 “13 look at how .NET applications and services can be integrated and interoperate with other key technologies and products of the Microsoft technology platform, including legacy COM applications, Office applications, and the suite of back-end servers (SharePoint Portal Server, BizTalk Server), now known as the Windows Server System.

A lot of significance has been given to security in the .NET platform. Chapter 14 provides details on the new code access security (CAS) features of the .NET Framework. Since the evolution of the .NET platform, Microsoft has come up with a number of blueprint (or sample) applications that apply a combination of .NET components and best practices to build production-ready sample applications. These applications provide a testing ground for performance benchmarking and technology highlights. Chapter 15, an unusual entry into this Kick Start book, discusses these blueprint applications and examines the concepts highlighted.

Last, but definitely not least, Chapter 16 looks at the road ahead for .NET and explores what you can look forward to as evolutionary (or even revolutionary) changes to the .NET programming model.