C# and the .NET Platform [antikvár]

Introduction At the time of this writing (shortly before the release of .NET Beta 2), the .NET platform and C# programming language are already making a distinct mark on the programming landscape. Without succumbing to marketing hype, I wholeheartedly believe that the .NET platform is poised to become the New World Order ofWindows development (and possible for non-Windows development in the future). .NET represents an entirely new way to build distributed desktop and mobile applications. One thing to be painfully aware of from the onset is that the .NET platform has nothing at all to do with classic COM. For example, as you read over this text, you will find that .NET types require no class factory, do not support !Unknown, and are not registered in the system registry. These COM atoms are not simply hidden away from view—they don't exist. Given that .NET is such a radical departure from the current modus operandi of Win32 development, Microsoft has developed a new language named C# (pronounced see-sharp) specifically for this new platform. C#, like Java, has its syntactic roots in C++. However, C# has also been influenced by Visual Basic 6.0. In this light, you are quite likely to find a number of similarities between C# and other modern programming languages. This is of course a good thing, as you can leverage your existing skills to come up to speed on the structure C#. The truth of the matter is that .NET is an extremely language-agnostic platform. You can make use of any .NET-aware language (and possibly numerous .NET aware languages) during the development of your next coding effort. In this vein, your greatest challenge is not necessarily learning the C# language, but rather coming to terms with the numerous types defined in the .NET base class libraries. Once you understand how to leverage the existing code base, you will find that the concept of "syntax" becomes a non issue given that all .NET-aware languages make use of the same base class types. This is also a good thing, given that you should be able to move swiftly between various .NET languages with minimal fuss and bother. The purpose of this text is to provide a solid foundation of the syntax and semantics of C#, as well as the architecture of the .NET platform. As you read through the (numerous) pages that follow, you will be exposed to each major facet of the .NET base class libraries. A high-level overview of each chapter follows. Chapter l: The Philosophy of .NET Chapter 1 functions as the backbone for this text. The first task of the chapter is to examine the world ofWindows development as we know it today, and review