- .NET in 24 Minutes
- Why Is .NET Important?
- What Are the Pieces of .NET?
- Summary Q & A
- Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms
ADO.NET Data access software; can be used from any of the .NET languages.
ASP.NET A programming environment for building Web sites.
Assembly A piece of a .NET application that can be deployed onto computers.
CLR See Common Language Runtime.
CLS See Common Language Specification.
Common Language Runtime The plumbing that enables all the .NET languages to interoperate and function.
Common Language Specification A mandated set of features that a language must implement to be a .NET language.
Common Type System A specification that defines how .NET types work. Types are the basic units of storage, such as Integer and String.
CTS See Common Type System.
Extensible Markup Language A language for describing data, principally across the Internet.
Framework A set of technologies that functions as a foundation for application development.
GAC See Global Assembly Cache.
Garbage Collection The process of cleaning up unused memory.
Garbage Collector A .NET process that continually runs in the background to perform garbage collection.
Global Assembly Cache An area where .NET can store assemblies that are meant to be used by many applications at a time.
JIT See Just In Time.
Just In Time An action taken at the last possible moment; by extension, a JIT compiler turns a programmer's code into something the computer can execute just before the computer needs it.
Managed Code Code that runs under the management of the Common Language Runtime.
Microsoft Intermediate Language A language that sits between native source code and compiled executable code; this is what is processed by the JIT compiler into code that the computer understands.
MSIL See Microsoft Intermediate Language.
Namespace A naming schema for organizing related objects into separate "buckets."
.NET Framework Class Library A set of precompiled code that developers can use to develop .NET applications.
Simple Object Access Protocol A standard that specifies a way to communicate XML-based information about applications and data from one point to another.
SOAP See Simple Object Access Protocol.
Unmanaged Code Code that runs outside of the common language runtime; in common terminology, code that does not "target" the .NET runtime.
XML See Extensible Markup Language.