| If we were to describe the C# language and its associated environment, the .NET Framework, as the
most important new technology for developers for many years, we would not be exaggerating. .NET is
designed to provide a new environment within which you can develop almost any application to run on
Windows, while C# is a new programming language that has been designed specifically to work with
.NET. Using C# you can, for example, write a dynamic Web page, an XMLWeb service, a component of a
distributed application, a database access component, or a classic Windows desktop application. This
book covers the .NET Framework 1.1, the second release of the framework, though most of this book
also applies to .NET Framework 1.0. If you are coding using version 1.0, then you might have to make
some changes, which we try to note throughout the book.
Don’t be fooled by the .NET label. The NET bit in the name is there to emphasize Microsoft’s belief that
distributed applications, in which the processing is distributed between client and server, are the way
forward, but C# is not just a language for writing Internet or network-aware applications. It provides a
means for you to code up almost any type of software or component that you might need to write for the
Windows platform. Between them, C# and .NET are set both to revolutionize the way that you write
programs, and to make programming on Windows much easier than it has ever been.
That’s quite a substantial claim, and it needs to be justified. After all, we all know how quickly computer
technology changes. Every year Microsoft brings out new software, programming tools, or versions of
Windows, with the claim that these will be hugely beneficial to developers. So what’s different about
.NET and C#? |
