.NET Framework

What is the .NET Framework? 

The .NET Framework is one of the main components of the software platform programmed by Microsoft .NET. Within this collection of tools for developers, the .NET Framework has two main functions: on the one hand, the partly open source framework offers programming interfaces, utilities and class libraries for the development of programs. On the other hand, it provides a runtime environment with CLR (Common Language Runtime), which enables software to be run on the basis of the .NET Framework. Since Windows Vista (2007), Microsoft has provided the .NET Framework with its operating systems. The library and runtime environment are installed as standard and automatically updated via the Windows Update. As not all versions of the framework are backwards compatible, Microsoft's systems install and support multiple editions of the .NET Framework in parallel.

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Note A fully open source variant of the .NET Framework has existed since 2016 with .NET Core (and has been part of .NET since November 2020 as the .NET Framework), which was developed by the .NET Foundation in collaboration with Microsoft and is made available under the MIT license. The open source edition is based on a modular, cross-platform structure: .NET Core can therefore also run on Linux and macOS, among other things.

============ What makes the .NET Framework so valuable to developers?

Developers find .NET Framework useful for two main reasons: .NET Framework enables multilingual projects. The platform allows collaboration on the same project in different programming languages. In many cases, all that is required is a simple code editor and the respective compilers, which are also provided with the .NET Framework. This means that you can, for example, write program parts in C++, C#, F# or Visual Basic, so that you can combine them and use them later in an application. The Microsoft toolkit uses the Common Intermediate Language (CIL), formerly known as Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL), which has a multilanguage system with object-oriented data types. ============

Note Microsoft has continued to develop the .NET Framework and the language interoperability of the platform without interruption. It is now possible to program applications in HTML5 or JavaScript based on the framework without difficulty. ============

As mentioned, the .NET Framework is now available as standard on Microsoft operating systems (with the exception of Server editions). If you develop an application based on the .NET Framework, you can assume that a large proportion of potential users have the appropriate runtime environment. If this is not the case, the framework can be installed in a few steps with all its interfaces and libraries to ensure that the various software applications can be run. With the additional .NET Core edition and the complete .NET suite, the necessary support on computers running the Linux or macOS operating system is also guaranteed.