Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1-2.
Components of the .NET Framework
An Improved Programming Environment
The .NET Framework offers programmers considerable improvements over previous Windows
programming environments. A brief overview of its features and their benefits is given in the
following sections.
Object-Oriented Development Environment
The CLR, the BCL, and C# have all been designed to be thoroughly object-oriented and act as a
well-integrated environment.
The system provides a consistent, object-oriented model of programming for both local
programs and distributed systems. It also provides a software development interface for both
application programming and web development, consistent across a broad range of targets,
from servers to cell phones.
Automatic Garbage Collection
The CLR has a tool called the
Garbage Collector
(
GC)
, which automatically manages memory.
The GC automatically deletes objects from memory that your program will no longer
access.
The GC relieves the programmer of tasks that he or she has traditionally had to perform,
such as deallocating memory and hunting for memory leaks. Hunting for memory leaks
can be difficult and time-consuming, so this is no small feature.
