Building blocks of .NET
In this article we view three key (and interrelated) topics that make it all possible: the CLR, CTS, and CLS . Common Language Runtime From a programmer’s point of view, .NET can be understood as a runtime environment and a comprehensive base class library. The runtime layer is properly referred to as the Common Language Runtime , or CLR. The primary role of the CLR is to locate, load, and manage .NET objects on your behalf. The CLR also takes care of a number of low-level details such as memory management, application hosting, coordinating threads, and performing basic security checks (among other low-level details). Common Type System Another building block of the .NET platform is the Common Type System , or CTS. The CTS specification fully describes all possible data types and all programming constructs supported by the runtime, specifies how these entities can interact with each other, and details how they are represented in the .NET metadata format. Common Languag...