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Some Important Features of Dot Net

By: Spec-India Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Interoperability support (Interop)

Migrating to .NET from existing languages and platforms has been made much easier; Especially if that environment is COM or Java. COM, Interop is built into the framework, and C# will be very familiar for those developing in Java currently. In fact, Microsoft has a migration utility to automatically migrate existing Java source code into C#.

Common language runtime (CLR)

This is the engine that is shared among all languages supported in .NET, including C#, VB.NET, Managed C++, J#, and others to come.
With the help of the CLR, the developer can write base classes in VB.NET, child classes in C#, and aggregate this tree from Managed C++ (this is just one example). You choose the language during implementation.

Base class library (BCL)

What makes Java so appealing besides the managed environment and cross-platform support is its class library. The .NET framework takes the class library concept a step further by supporting it across any language and extensible for future platform variances. Now BCL-supported features such as remoting, string manipulation, exception handling, and collection management construct is the same from any language conforming to the CLI.

Common type system (CTS)

This addresses the supported data types within the framework and how they are represented in metadata format. Each supported .NET language need only support a subset of the total data type set. Typically, it will be those types used most frequently (e.g., integer, short, long, string, char, boolean, object, interface, struct, etc.)

Simplified deployment

Say goodbye to DLL hell and the nightmare of Windows registration. Applications can now be deployed by a simple XCOPY of the assemblies, ASP.net files, and configuration files.

Full Web service and SOAP support

Complexities are optionally hidden for building Web service providers and consumers in .NET. Details of the syntax and protocol surrounding XML Web services can be fully customized if needed, however. It is truly the best of both worlds.

XML at the core

Serialization, streaming, parsing, transforming, and schema support are only some of the “baked-in” XML features of the .NET runtime.

Object-oriented ASP.NET

Use script for your clients, not your server-based code! Leverage your existing OO framework from ASP.NET and enjoy improved Web application performance due to compiled server code.