.NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software component that can be added to or is included with Microsoft Windows operating system. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common program requirements, and manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. The .NET Framework is a key Microsoft offering, and is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform.

The pre-coded solutions that form the framework's Base Class Library (BCL) cover a large range of programming needs in areas including: user interface, data access, database connectivity, cryptography, web application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. The functions of the class library are used by programmers who combine them with their own code to produce applications. With version 3.5 of the .NET Framework, the libraries will be released under shared-source MS-RL license.

Programs written for the .NET Framework execute in a software environment that manages the program's runtime requirements. This runtime environment, which is also a part of the .NET Framework, is known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR provides the appearance of an application virtual machine, so that programmers need not consider the capabilities of the specific CPU that will execute the program. The CLR also provides other important services such as security mechanisms, memory management, and exception handling. The class library and the CLR together compose the .NET Framework. The framework is intended to make it easier to develop computer applications and to reduce the vulnerability of applications and computers to security threats.

There is also an OpenSource offering of the .NET Framework based on the EMCA ratified standard for the C# language.

The Mono runtime contains a just-in-time compilation (JIT) engine for a number of processors: x86, SPARC, PowerPC, ARM, S390 (in 32-bit and 64-bit mode), and x86-64, IA64 and SPARC for 64-bit modes. The runtime will perform a just-in-time compilation to the machine's native code which is cached as the application runs. It is also possible to precache the native image before execution. For other supported systems not listed, an interpreter performs each byte code one by one without compiling the image to native code. In almost every condition the JIT method will outperform the interpreted method.
Mono currently provides the core API of the .NET Framework as well as partial support for C# 2.0 and Visual Basic .NET.

Support for the 2.0 APIs is partial at this point (core, ADO .NET and ASP .NET) but other components like Windows.Forms are not yet complete.

We can undertake any .NET development and can design and engineer scalable, distributed software systems running on heterogenous software systems, mixing both Mono and MS .NET implementations of the .NET framework.

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