WHAT IS DOT NET FRAME WORK

The?.NET Framework?(pronounced as "dot net") is a proprietary?software framework?developed by?Microsoft?that runs primarily on?Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the?Common Language Infrastructure?(CLI) until being superseded by the cross-platform?.NET?project. It includes a large?class library?called?Framework Class Library?(FCL) and provides?language interoperability?(each language can use code written in other languages) across several?programming languages. Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a?software?environment (in contrast to a?hardware?environment) named the?Common Language Runtime?(CLR). The CLR is an?application virtual machine?that provides services such as security,?memory management, and?exception handling. As such, computer code written using .NET Framework is called "managed code". FCL and CLR together constitute the .NET Framework.

FCL provides the?user interface,?data access,?database connectivity,?cryptography,?web application?development, numeric?algorithms, and?network communications. Programmers produce software by combining their?source code?with .NET Framework and other libraries. The framework is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform. Microsoft also produces an?integrated development environment?for .NET software called?Visual Studio.

.NET Framework began as?proprietary software, although the firm worked to?standardize?the software stack almost immediately, even before its first release. Despite the standardization efforts, developers, mainly those in the?free and open-source software?communities, expressed their unease with the selected terms and the prospects of any free and open-source implementation, especially regarding?software patents. Since then, Microsoft has changed .NET development to more closely follow a contemporary model of a community-developed software project, including issuing an update to its patent promising to address the concerns.[2]

In April 2019, Microsoft released .NET Framework 4.8, the last version of the framework as a proprietary offering. Only monthly security and reliability?bug?fixes to that version have been released since then. No further changes to that version are planned.[3]

History[edit]

Main article:?.NET Framework version history

Microsoft began developing .NET Framework in the late 1990s, originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS), as part of the?.NET strategy. By early 2000, the first beta versions of .NET 1.0 were released.

In August 2000,?Microsoft, and?Intel?worked to standardize?Common Language Infrastructure?(CLI) and?C#. By December 2001, both were ratified?Ecma International?(ECMA) standards.[4][5]?International Organization for Standardization?(ISO) followed in April 2003. The current version of ISO standards are ISO/IEC 23271:2012 and ISO/IEC 23270:2006.[6][7]

While Microsoft and their partners hold patents for CLI and C#, ECMA and ISO require that all patents essential to implementation be made available under "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms". The firms agreed to meet these terms, and to make the patents available royalty-free. However, this did not apply to the part of the .NET Framework not covered by ECMA-ISO standards, which included?Windows Forms,?ADO.NET, and?ASP.NET. Patents that Microsoft holds in these areas may have deterred non-Microsoft implementations of the full framework.[8]

On October 3, 2007, Microsoft announced that the?source code?for .NET Framework 3.5 libraries was to become available under the?Microsoft Reference Source License?(Ms-RSL[a]).[9]?The source code repository became available online on January 16, 2008, and included BCL, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Windows Forms, WPF, and XML.?Scott Guthrie?of Microsoft promised that LINQ, WCF, and WF libraries were being added.[10]

The?.NET Compact Framework?and?.NET Micro Framework?variants of the .NET Framework provided support for other Microsoft platforms such as?Windows Mobile,?Windows CE?and other resource-constrained embedded devices.?Silverlight?provided support for?web browsers?via plug-ins.

In November 2014, Microsoft also produced an update to its patent grants, which further extends the scope beyond its prior pledges. Prior projects like?Mono?existed in a legal?grey area?because Microsoft's earlier grants applied only to the technology in "covered specifications", including strictly the 4th editions each of ECMA-334 and ECMA-335. The new patent promise, however, places no ceiling on the specification version, and even extends to any .NET runtime technologies documented on MSDN that have not been formally specified by the ECMA group, if a project chooses to implement them. This allows Mono and other projects to maintain feature parity with modern .NET features that have been introduced since the 4th edition was published without being at risk of patent litigation over the implementation of those features. The new grant does maintain the restriction that any implementation must maintain minimum compliance with the mandatory parts of the CLI specification.[11]

On March 31, 2016, Microsoft announced at?Microsoft Build?that they will completely?relicense?Mono under an?MIT License?even in scenarios where formerly a commercial license was needed.[12]?Microsoft also supplemented its prior patent promise for Mono, stating that they will not assert any "applicable patents" against parties that are "using, selling, offering for sale, importing, or distributing Mono."[13][14]?It was announced that the Mono Project was contributed to the .NET Foundation. These developments followed the acquisition of?Xamarin, which began in February 2016 and was finished on March 18, 2016.[15]