Dot Net in plain english

[Fred]

Hi,
i'm looking to find out exactly what .net can do for me.

Can anyone post a link to a plain english version of what it can / can't do
etc etc.

Cheers

[goldpython]

..NET is a large library software that simplifies writing programs under
Windows. Compared to the Win32 Windows call interface, under .NET you
spend less time on tedious tasks that have to be performed to use the
services that Windows provides and more time actually using those
services to solve your application's problems. Other runtime libraries
that preceeded it, notably the MFC Library, but .NET is much larger and
more complete.

All of this is not completely for free, as you do sacrifice some
measure of efficiency and control over precisely what's going on, but
the trade-off is usually deemed well worth it for the typical business
application.

Where the various efficiencies like memory utilization and speed are
much more critical, say, in a low-level device driver, unmanaged -- and
this word has a particular meaning in .NET -- C or C++ would be more
appropriate tools.

Hope this helps,
gp

[David McCallum]

Good explanation. Now for me, The differenece (in plain English) between
managed and unmanaged code.

David McCallum

"goldpython" <go********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@s34g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...

.NET is a large library software that simplifies writing programs under
Windows. Compared to the Win32 Windows call interface, under .NET you
spend less time on tedious tasks that have to be performed to use the
services that Windows provides and more time actually using those
services to solve your application's problems. Other runtime libraries
that preceeded it, notably the MFC Library, but .NET is much larger and
more complete.

All of this is not completely for free, as you do sacrifice some
measure of efficiency and control over precisely what's going on, but
the trade-off is usually deemed well worth it for the typical business
application.

Where the various efficiencies like memory utilization and speed are
much more critical, say, in a low-level device driver, unmanaged -- and
this word has a particular meaning in .NET -- C or C++ would be more
appropriate tools.

Hope this helps,
gp

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

"David McCallum" <dm**********@THISblueyonder.co.ukwrote in message
news:jq********************@fe2.news.blueyonder.co .uk...

Good explanation. Now for me, The differenece (in plain English) between
managed and unmanaged code.

David McCallum

Managed code is code that is run in a virtual machine environment, where
specific rules and constraints have been placed on the code, and specific
features of the environment are routinely used by the code. Managed code is
encoded in an intermediate language (MSIL for .Net, Bytecode for Java) that
the virtual machine can understand by a compiler that understands the
capabilities of the virtual machine environment.

Coding in this manner provides a controlled space in which to operate,
allowing the software developer to know, for a fact, that some of the
difficult problems typical of prior coding paradigms have been solved for
them.

Managed code is managed for the developer, not the user.

Unmanaged code is coding that is run directly by the operating system, and
calls traditional libraries in a less constrained environment. In this
environment, the programmer takes on the additional responsibility for the
tasks that could be provided by a managed environment. In exchange for
taking on additional dev responsibility, the code usually runs a bit faster
and can often access hardware resources more readily. For business
applications (GUI apps and Web apps) the difference is nearly never
noticable. For intense applications, like gaming environments, CAD systems,
real time device control, among others, sophisticated environments already
exist that perform the common tasks required by developers, so their
advantage in moving to managed code is substantially less, and the
performance cost of the constrained virtual machine may present a greater
obstacle.

I hope this helps,

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--

>
"goldpython" <go********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@s34g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...

>.NET is a large library software that simplifies writing programs under
Windows. Compared to the Win32 Windows call interface, under .NET you
spend less time on tedious tasks that have to be performed to use the
services that Windows provides and more time actually using those
services to solve your application's problems. Other runtime libraries
that preceeded it, notably the MFC Library, but .NET is much larger and
more complete.

All of this is not completely for free, as you do sacrifice some
measure of efficiency and control over precisely what's going on, but
the trade-off is usually deemed well worth it for the typical business
application.

Where the various efficiencies like memory utilization and speed are
much more critical, say, in a low-level device driver, unmanaged -- and
this word has a particular meaning in .NET -- C or C++ would be more
appropriate tools.

Hope this helps,
gp

[Kevin Spencer]

I would have to take issue with only one point (gaming software) here.
Managed DirectX, from personal experience, is nearly as fast as unmanaged
DirectX. It is not a wrapper for DirectX, and it sits just above the
Hardware Abstraction Layer, just like unmanaged DirectX. And, since both
rely for the most part on the graphics card to do the heavy lifting, there
is little performance difference between them.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Software Composer
http://unclechutney.blogspot.com

The shortest distance between 2 points is a curve.

"Nick Malik [Microsoft]" <ni*******@hotmail.nospam.comwrote in message
news:S_******************************@comcast.com. ..

"David McCallum" <dm**********@THISblueyonder.co.ukwrote in message
news:jq********************@fe2.news.blueyonder.co .uk...

>Good explanation. Now for me, The differenece (in plain English) between
managed and unmanaged code.

David McCallum

Managed code is code that is run in a virtual machine environment, where
specific rules and constraints have been placed on the code, and specific
features of the environment are routinely used by the code. Managed code
is encoded in an intermediate language (MSIL for .Net, Bytecode for Java)
that the virtual machine can understand by a compiler that understands the
capabilities of the virtual machine environment.

Coding in this manner provides a controlled space in which to operate,
allowing the software developer to know, for a fact, that some of the
difficult problems typical of prior coding paradigms have been solved for
them.

Managed code is managed for the developer, not the user.

Unmanaged code is coding that is run directly by the operating system, and
calls traditional libraries in a less constrained environment. In this
environment, the programmer takes on the additional responsibility for the
tasks that could be provided by a managed environment. In exchange for
taking on additional dev responsibility, the code usually runs a bit
faster and can often access hardware resources more readily. For business
applications (GUI apps and Web apps) the difference is nearly never
noticable. For intense applications, like gaming environments, CAD
systems, real time device control, among others, sophisticated
environments already exist that perform the common tasks required by
developers, so their advantage in moving to managed code is substantially
less, and the performance cost of the constrained virtual machine may
present a greater obstacle.

I hope this helps,

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--

>>
"goldpython" <go********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@s34g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

>>.NET is a large library software that simplifies writing programs under
Windows. Compared to the Win32 Windows call interface, under .NET you
spend less time on tedious tasks that have to be performed to use the
services that Windows provides and more time actually using those
services to solve your application's problems. Other runtime libraries
that preceeded it, notably the MFC Library, but .NET is much larger and
more complete.

All of this is not completely for free, as you do sacrifice some
measure of efficiency and control over precisely what's going on, but
the trade-off is usually deemed well worth it for the typical business
application.

Where the various efficiencies like memory utilization and speed are
much more critical, say, in a low-level device driver, unmanaged -- and
this word has a particular meaning in .NET -- C or C++ would be more
appropriate tools.

Hope this helps,
gp

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

My apologies. You are correct, the gaming framework has moved successfully
to managed code.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--
"Kevin Spencer" <un**********@nothinks.comwrote in message
news:eP**************@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>I would have to take issue with only one point (gaming software) here.
Managed DirectX, from personal experience, is nearly as fast as unmanaged
DirectX. It is not a wrapper for DirectX, and it sits just above the
Hardware Abstraction Layer, just like unmanaged DirectX. And, since both
rely for the most part on the graphics card to do the heavy lifting, there
is little performance difference between them.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Software Composer
http://unclechutney.blogspot.com

The shortest distance between 2 points is a curve.

"Nick Malik [Microsoft]" <ni*******@hotmail.nospam.comwrote in message
news:S_******************************@comcast.com. ..

>"David McCallum" <dm**********@THISblueyonder.co.ukwrote in message
news:jq********************@fe2.news.blueyonder.c o.uk...

>>Good explanation. Now for me, The differenece (in plain English) between
managed and unmanaged code.

David McCallum

Managed code is code that is run in a virtual machine environment, where
specific rules and constraints have been placed on the code, and specific
features of the environment are routinely used by the code. Managed code
is encoded in an intermediate language (MSIL for .Net, Bytecode for Java)
that the virtual machine can understand by a compiler that understands
the capabilities of the virtual machine environment.

Coding in this manner provides a controlled space in which to operate,
allowing the software developer to know, for a fact, that some of the
difficult problems typical of prior coding paradigms have been solved for
them.

Managed code is managed for the developer, not the user.

Unmanaged code is coding that is run directly by the operating system,
and calls traditional libraries in a less constrained environment. In
this environment, the programmer takes on the additional responsibility
for the tasks that could be provided by a managed environment. In
exchange for taking on additional dev responsibility, the code usually
runs a bit faster and can often access hardware resources more readily.
For business applications (GUI apps and Web apps) the difference is
nearly never noticable. For intense applications, like gaming
environments, CAD systems, real time device control, among others,
sophisticated environments already exist that perform the common tasks
required by developers, so their advantage in moving to managed code is
substantially less, and the performance cost of the constrained virtual
machine may present a greater obstacle.

I hope this helps,

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--

>>>
"goldpython" <go********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@s34g2000cwa.googleg roups.com...
.NET is a large library software that simplifies writing programs under
Windows. Compared to the Win32 Windows call interface, under .NET you
spend less time on tedious tasks that have to be performed to use the
services that Windows provides and more time actually using those
services to solve your application's problems. Other runtime libraries
that preceeded it, notably the MFC Library, but .NET is much larger and
more complete.

All of this is not completely for free, as you do sacrifice some
measure of efficiency and control over precisely what's going on, but
the trade-off is usually deemed well worth it for the typical business
application.

Where the various efficiencies like memory utilization and speed are
much more critical, say, in a low-level device driver, unmanaged -- and
this word has a particular meaning in .NET -- C or C++ would be more
appropriate tools.

Hope this helps,
gp