Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell, Third Edition

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This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2006 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter 7.NET FCL

7

The .NET Framework

Class Library

With its move to .NET, Visual Basic is now about classes, classes, and more

classes. Even something as simple as an

Integer is implemented in a class (the

System.Int32 class). As mentioned in Chapter 2, the .NET Framework defines an

extensive network of classes and namespaces called the Framework Class Library

(FCL). This library provides basic application development services, such as core

data types, exception handling, and garbage collection, and support for higher-

level functionality, such as database interaction, a forms and control package, and

a web-based programming system. In total, there are about 200 namespaces

containing several thousand classes, interfaces, structures, enumerations, and

other items in the .NET Framework Class Library.

The term Base Class Library (BCL) refers to an important subset of the larger

Framework Class Library. Because most programmers use the whole library

without thinking much about whether they are using FCL or BCL, the terms are

used interchangeably. You will find the terms sometimes used interchangeably

even in this book.

The System namespace is at the top of the namespace hierarchy for most

namespaces supplied with the .NET Framework, and the System.Object class is at

the top of the object ...