The .NET Revolution

In 2002, Microsoft officially released the .NET Framework version 1.0. .NET was a revolutionary departure from any development platform Microsoft had ever released. It came with a large set of precoded libraries that exposed or wrapped most of the core functionality within the Microsoft software development kit (SDK). It included a code management system known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR) that managed memory, loaded classes, and delivered just - in - time compilation to applications written in a .NET - enabled language. .NET languages run the gamut from script languages to older mainframe languages such as Cobol.net. However, the most popular are VB .NET, Microsoft ’ s next generation of the popular Visual Basic language, and C#, a C - based language created by Microsoft specifically for building .NET applications. Unlike the COM and ActiveX of old, .NET was designed from the ground up to be a comprehensive development and runtime environment. Its mature combination of APIs, development tools, and runtime services makes it a far better candidate for building enterprise applications. .NET mirrors other managed software platforms in terms of tools and services provided, and it is still considered by most to be Microsoft ’ s answer to the Java development platform. However, unlike Java, .NET didn ’ t have the impetus of academic and enterprise developers driving it. On the contrary, at the time of .NET ’ s release most Microsoft developers were RAD programmers or automation engineers. Thus, there wasn ’ t a whole lot of enterprise development happening in the world of Windows.

In time, that began to change. As the .NET Framework became more mature (and as Microsoft was beefing up its server architecture a bit) more and more people began to recognize some of its enterprise advantages. .NET languages, particularly C#, were well suited for complex patterns. Language constructs such as delegates and events, properties, and indexers, made C# a suitable candidate for writing consumable, decoupled APIs. Microsoft has also taken a more accepting position to the world of open source. Upon initial release of the framework, Microsoft published the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and submitted it, along with specifications for the C# language and C++/CLI language, to both ECMA and ISO, making them accessible as open standards. Microsoft at first held tight to its patents on its core technologies such as its user interface API (Windows Forms) and their data access API (ADO.NET). However, in October of 2007, Microsoft announced that it would release much of the source code for the .NET base class libraries under the shared source Microsoft Reference License. This code was released in the next version of their popular interactive development environment, Visual Studio.NET 2008 edition. These steps helped to make .NET more attractive to a broader set of software engineers.

Over the last few years a number of .NET open source communities have emerged, driving new projects and embracing enterprise patterns as a means of more complicated system development. The Mono project, an initiative to create a suite of .NET tools and services targeting multiple operating systems, was established in July of 2001 and uses the public CLI specifications within its software. SourceForge.NET, an open source community code repository, has a growing number of .NET projects. Many of the popular Java open source projects, such as LogForJ and Hibernate, have .NET sister projects that started in SourceForge.NET. SourceForge.net is a terrific resource for finding and exploring open source projects from all areas of the software development industry. It also includes community forums, information for system administrators, and a marketplace for buying and selling projects. Perhaps most notable among the open source communities is Codeplex.com. Codeplex is Microsoft ’ s open source project hosting site. Launched in June of 2006 and powered by Microsoft ’ s Team Foundation Server, Codeplex had accumulated over 3500 public .NET projects by early 2008. It remains one of the primary avenues of code patterns used by Microsoft today.

Source of Information : Wrox Professional Enterprise dot NET

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