Clearly, once you are comfortable with your .NET programming language of choice, your next goal as a
.NET developer is to get to know the wealth of types defined in the (numerous) .NET namespaces. The most
fundamental namespace to get your head around initially is named System. This namespace provides a core
body of types that you will need to leverage time and again as a .NET developer. In fact, you cannot build any
sort of functional C# application without at least making a reference to the System namespace, as the core
data types (e.g., System.Int32, System.String) are defined here. Table offers a rundown of some
(but certainly not all) of the .NET namespaces grouped by related functionality.
Now that you know some of the major benefits provided by .NET, let’s preview three key (and interrelated) topics that make it all possible: the CLR, CTS, and CLS. From a programmer’s point of view, .NET can be understood as a runtime environment and a comprehensive base class library. The runtime layer is properly referred to as the Common Language Runtime, or CLR. The primary role of the CLR is to locate, load, and manage .NET objects on your behalf. The CLR also takes care of a number of low-level details such as memory management, application hosting, coordinating threads, and performing basic security checks (among other low-level details). Another building block of the .NET platform is the Common Type System, or CTS. The CTS specification fully describes all possible data types and all programming constructs supported by the runtime, specifies how these entities can interact with each other, and details how they are represented in the .NET metadata format. Understand that a give
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