When we speak about .Net, we mean by .NET framework. .NET Framework is made up of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), the Base Class Library (System Classes). This allows us to build our own services (Web Services or Windows Services) and Web Applications (Web forms Or Asp .Net), and Windows applications (Windows forms). We can see how this is all put together.?
Above Picture shows overall picture, demonstrating how the .NET languages follows rules provided by the Common Language Specifications (CLS). These languages can all be used?Independently to build application and can all be used with built-in data describers (XML) and data assessors (ADO .NET and SQL). Every component of the .NET Framework can take advantage of the large pre- built library of classes called the Framework Class Library (FCL). Once everything is put together, the code that is created is executed in the Common Language Runtime. Common Language Runtime is designed to allow any .NET-compliant language to execute its code. At the time of writing, these languages included VB .Net, C# and C++ .NET, but any language can become .NET- compliant, if they follow CLS rules. The following sections will address each of the parts of the architecture.
.Net Common Language Specifications (CLS):
In an object-oriented environment, everything is considered as an object. (This point is explained in this article and the more advanced features are explained in other articles.) You create a template for an object (this is called the class file), and this class file is used to create multiple objects.
TIP: Consider a Rectangle. You may want to create many Rectangle in your lifetime; but each Rectangle will have certain characteristics and certain functions. For example, each rectangle will have a specific width and color. So now, suppose your friend also wants to create a Rectangle. Why reinvent the Rectangle? You can create a common template and share it with others. They create the Rectangle based on your template. This is the heart of object-oriented programming?the template is the class file, and the Rectangle is the objects built from that class. Once you have created an object, your object needs to communicate with many other Objects.
Even if it is created in another .NET language doesn?t matter, because each language follows the rules of the CLS. The CLS defines the necessary things as common variable types (this is called the Common Type System CTS ), common visibility like when and where can one see these variables, common method specifications, and so on. It doesn?t have one rule which tells how C# composes its objects and another rule tells how VB .Net does the same thing . To steal a phrase, there is now ?One rule to bind them all.? One thing to note here is that the CLS simply provides the bare rules. Languages can adhere to their own specification. In this case, the actual compilers do not need to be as powerful as those that support the full CLS.
The Common Language Runtime (CLR):
The heart of .net Framework is Common Language Runtime (CLR). All .NET-compliant languages run in a common, managed runtime execution environment. With the CLR, you can rely on code that is accessed from different languages. This is a huge benefit. One coder can write one module in C#, and another can access and use it from VB .Net. Automatic object management, the .NET languages take care of memory issues automatically. These are the few listed?benefits which you get from CLR.
Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL):
So how can many different languages be brought together and executed together??Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or, as it?s more commonly known, Intermediate Language (IL). In its simplest terms, IL is a programming language.?If you wanted to, you could write IL directly, compile it, and run it. But why would want to write such low level code? Microsoft has provided with higher-level languages, such as C#, that one can use. Before the code is executed, the MSIL must be converted into platform-specific code. The CLR includes something called a JIT compiler in which the compiler order is as follows.
Source Code => Compiler => Assembley =>Class Loader =>Jit Compiler =>Manged Native Code=>Execution.
The above is the order of compilation and execution of programs. Once a program is written in a .Net compliant language, the rest all is the responsibility of the frame work.