The .NET Environment

Abstract

Throughout this book we have talked about the .NET environment and how C# is one of the key elements of that environment. However, until now we have not gone into any detail about .Net. This is for two very good reasons. Firstly, while C# is an important element of .NET, C# can be used as a programming language without any reference to any other elements of .NET. Indeed, that is exactly the approach we have taken for most of this book. It should be noted that C# is an excellent object-oriented language within which to build applications, whether you are interested in .NET or not! The second reason is that at the time of writing the .NET framework is still evolving, and to some extent is more of a re-packaging of existing Microsoft services than a coherent environment. This will undoubtedly change, whereas the core of the C# language will not.