.NET Framework review. Basic design features

In this entry will be described .NET Framework principal design features. Brief description to get quick overview of .NET basic design.

Portability
The design of the .NET Framework allows it to theoretically be platform agnostic, and thus cross-platform compatible. That is, a program written to use the framework should run without change on any type of system for which the framework is implemented. While Microsoft has never implemented the full framework on any system except Microsoft Windows, the framework is engineered to be platform agnostic, and cross-platform implementations are available for other operating systems (see Silverlight and the Alternative implementations section below). Microsoft submitted the specifications for the Common Language Infrastructure (which includes the core class libraries, Common Type System, and the Common Intermediate Language), the C# language, and the C++/CLI language to both ECMA (Ecma International is an international, private (membership-based) non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems) and the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), making them available as open standards. This makes it possible for third parties to create compatible implementations of the framework and its languages on other platforms.

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