What is the .NET Framework? The .NET Framework, developed by Microsoft, is a software framework which can be installed on computers currently running the Microsoft Windows operating systems (OS). The .NET Framework includes a very large library of coded solutions to typical programming problems along with a virtual machine (VM) that controls and manages the execution of programs written exclusively for the framework. It also supports a multitude of programming languages in a manner that allows language interoperability, where each language can then utilize code written in other languages. It is noted that the .NET library is available to use by all the programming languages that .NET encompasses. The .NET Framework is intended to be used by most new applications and programs created for the Windows platform. The .NET framework's Base Class Library provides a lot of features including user interface, cryptography, numeric algorithms, database connectivity, data access, web application development and network communications. This library is used by programmers, who combine it with their own programming code to produce new applications. Programs written for the .NET Framework execute in a software environment that manages the program's runtime requirements. The Common Language Runtime (CLR) provides the appearance of an application virtual machine (VM) so that programmers do not need to consider the capabilities of the specific central processing unit (CPU) which will run the program. The Microsoft .NET Framework family also includes two versions that are used for mobile or embedded device use. The .NET's principle design features are:
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