Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Before .NET
The C# programming language was designed for developing programs for Microsoft's .NET
Framework. This chapter will take a brief look at where .NET came from, and its basic architec-
ture. Just to make sure you're starting on the right foot, let me take this opportunity to remind
you of what is hopefully the obvious: C# sharp is pronounced
see sharp
.
1
Windows Programming in the Late 1990s
In the late 1990s, Windows programming using the Microsoft platform had fractured into a
number of branches. Most programmers were using Visual Basic (VB), C, or C++. Some C and
C++ programmers were using the raw Win32 API, but most C++ programmers were using MFC
(Microsoft Foundation Classes). Others had moved to COM (the Component Object Model).
All these technologies had their own problems. The raw Win32 API was not object-
oriented, and using it required a lot more work than MFC. MFC was object-oriented, but it was
inconsistent and getting old. COM, although conceptually simple, was complex in its actual
coding, and required lots of ugly, inelegant plumbing.
Another shortcoming of all these programming technologies was that they were aimed
primarily at developing code for the desktop rather than the Internet. At the time, program-
ming for the Web was an afterthought and seemed very different from coding for the desktop.
Goals for the Next-Generation Platform
What we really needed was a new start—an integrated, object-oriented development frame-
work that would bring consistency and elegance back to programming. To meet this need,
Microsoft set out to develop a code execution environment and a code development environ-
ment that met the goals illustrated in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1.
Goals for the next-generation platform
1.
I was once interviewing for a contract C# programming position when the human resources inter-
viewer asked me how much experience I'd had programming in “see pound” (instead of “see sharp”)!
It took me a second to realize what he was talking about.
