Summary

In this chapter we have examined using IL to define classes and other more sophisticated constructs, going beyond basic program control flow and use of the evaluation stack. We have seen how to define and instantiate both value and reference types, and have seen how the CLR provides support for areas such as arrays and enumerations, as well as more advanced concepts such as exception handling, custom attributes, and delegates. Finally, we have put our understanding of IL into practice by using it to compare the output from compilers in different languages - and have in the process seen some evidence of the greater power of the C++ compiler as compared to the C# and VB compilers.

We have now finished our look at the IL language, but not of the internal workings of the .NET Framework. In the next chapter we are going to carry on digging under the hood of the common language runtime, to investigate how it supports a variety of services including interaction with unmanaged code and support for type safety.