Microsoft® .NET Kick Start

What Is .NET?

The Microsoft .NET platform is really an evolution of the Windows software platform and addresses some of the key requirements posed by the development community to help design, build, and manage software applications with reduced time and complexity. Even though the biggest immediate change in the overall platform is the .NET Framework, which provides key technologies for development of custom applications, the change is gradually making its way into almost every technology that Microsoft develops, including the operating system, servers, programming framework, applications, and tools.

Key components of the overall .NET platform (see Figure 1.1) include the following:

• .NET Framework— The core of the platform, providing key services ...