1.3. Introducing the Building Blocks of the .NET Platform (the CLR, CTS, and CLS)
Now that you know some of the benefits provided by .NET, let's preview three key (and interrelated) entities that make it all possible: the CLR, CTS, and CLS. From a programmer's point of view, .NET can be understood as a runtime environment and a comprehensive base class library. The runtime layer is properly referred to as the Common Language Runtime, or CLR. The primary role of the CLR is to locate, load, and manage .NET types on your behalf. The CLR also takes care of a number of low-level details such as memory management, application hosting, handling threads, and performing various security checks.
Another building block of the .NET platform is the Common ...
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