10 CHAPTER 1 THE PHILOSOPHY OF .NET (Apache web server for windows)
10 CHAPTER 1 THE PHILOSOPHY OF .NET An Overview of .NET Assemblies Regardless of which .NET language you choose to program with, understand that despite the fact that .NET binaries take the same file extension as COM servers and unmanaged Win32 binaries (*.dll or *.exe), they have absolutely no internal similarities. For example, *.dll .NET binaries do not export methods to facilitate communications with the COM runtime (given that .NET is not COM). Furthermore, .NET binaries are not described using COM type libraries and are not registered into the system registry. Perhaps most important, .NET binaries do not contain platform-specific instructions, but rather platform-agnostic intermediate language (IL) and type metadata. Figure 1-2 shows the big picture of the story thus far. Figure 1-2. All .NET-aware compilers emit IL instructions and metadata. Note There is one point to be made regarding the abbreviation IL. During the development of .NET, the official term for IL was Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL). However with the final release of .NET, the term was changed to common intermediate language (CIL). Thus, as you read the .NET literature, understand that IL, MSIL, and CIL are all describing the same exact entity. In keeping with the current terminology, I will use the abbreviation CIL throughout this text. When a *.dll or *.exe has been created using a .NET-aware compiler, the resulting module is bundled into an assembly. You will examine numerous details of .NET assemblies in Chapter 11. However, to facilitate the discussion of the .NET runtime environment, you do need to understand some basic properties of this new file format. As mentioned, an assembly contains CIL code, which is conceptually similar to Java bytecode in that it is not compiled to platform-specific instructions until absolutely necessary. Typically, absolutely necessary is the point at which a block of CIL instructions (such as a method implementation) is referenced for use by the .NET runtime. In addition to CIL instructions, assemblies also contain metadata that describes in vivid detail the characteristics of every type living within the binary. For example, if you have a class named SportsCar, the type metadata describes details such as SportsCar s base class, which interfaces are
If you are searching for cheap webhost for your web application, please visit MySQL5 Web Hosting services.