Stupid question

[Hal9000]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but what exactly is ".net"?

[Hal9000]

Just a short quick definition will be fine, dont need a long drawn out 2 page report on every aspect of it :-)

[peterchen]

.NET is the great new idea of MS. It seems to fulfil the original promises of COM/DCOM/COM+ but is much easier.

First is a common runtilme library for all MS languages (CLR), where you can easily create a class in C++ and use it from VB. The CLR uses a Intermediate language and a just-in-time compiler, instead of a completely compiled .exe (you get .exe's anyway) It looks like making modular software on the local machine a real joy.

Then there's a new language C# (kind of simplified C++ with Java influences) - it simplifies or simply denies those issues that make C++ complicated)

Next puzzle piece is SOAP, which I interpret as simplification of the MTS stuff, intended to manage large-scale distributed applications (might be I'm wrong here...)

.NET also promised "bringing together websites" - as much as I understood it, it is e.g. amazon exposing an interface that delivery/shipping suppliers to interact with the seller, so the customer can pick the shipping that fits best (I don't quite belive in this).

The .NET platform should also be fun regarding security - e.g. an CLR .exe run from

Personally, many of these things look like "wait and see, but don't loose the touch" issues; however, C# and managed C++ looks really cool to me.

Good luck, and be prepared for a change
Peter

[Hal9000]

cool thanks man :-)

[Johnny101]

.NET is the culmination of all the acronyms leading up to today. Windows DNA was probably the birth place of .NET. DNA was basically - Use all M$ technologies to build applications. Well, .NET takes that a bit further. True .NET is meant for M$ stuff, but unlike DNA - .NET will probably be available on other platforms. I've heard that Mac and Unix versions of the CRL are in development. There is a new version of Windows 2000 (maybe late 2001) on the way that will further embrace the CRL and the .NET initiative. Visual Studio 7 - now named Visual Studio.NET - is the first tool to be available for creating .NET solutions. ASP+ and ADO+ will soon follow. As mentioned before, SOAP will be a valuable part. And last but most certainly not least is XML. M$ is betting the farm on XML - all the way down to how ADO will marshall data across the network (recordset objects aren't passed anymore - they are converted into XML and sent - the client then rebuilds the recordset from the XML file). There are several websites that are demonstrating some of this new technology - www.IBUYSPY.com is one built from M$. www.aspfree.com is demoing ASP+ from the PDC release last month. And, as always, watch the M$ sites (www.microsoft.com/net, and msdn.microsoft.com/nextgen).

Unlike previous initiatives from M$, with this one, they intend to share every beta with anyone who wants it. Case and point - the technology preview CD that was released at the PDC is now generally available. I've also heard that M$ intends to do the same thing they did with Win2K with VS.NET - everyone will sooner or later get a copy before it goes live. I must have 4 different copies of Win2K beta3 and RC2 each. I didn't ask for any of them - they just kept coming. I'm sure you had a similar experience.

even though the complete .NET environment is still a good year or two away, it doesn't hurt to keep up on what's comming next.

i'm sure it will be a good time for developers, but it will be a long road there.

John

John Pirkey
MCSD
http://www.ShallowWaterSystems.com
http://www.stlvbug.org