Now that we know some basics of .NET, let us see what makes .NET a wonderful
platform for developing modern applications.
Rich Functionality out of the box
.NET framework provides a rich set of functionality out of the box. It contains
hundreds of classes that provide variety of functionality ready to use in your
applications. This means that as a developer you need not go into low level details
of many operations such as file IO, network communication and so on.
Easy development of web applications
ASP.NET is a technology available on .NET platform for developing dynamic
and data driven web applications. ASP.NET provides an event driven
programming model (similar to Visual Basic 6 that simplify development of web
pages (now called as web forms) with complex user interface. ASP.NET server
controls provide advanced user interface elements (like calendar and grids) that
save lot of coding from programmer’s side.
OOPs Support
The advantages of Object Oriented programming are well known. .NET provides
a fully object oriented environment. The philosophy of .NET is – “Object is
mother of all.” Languages like Visual Basic.NET now support many of the OO
features that were lacking traditionally. Even primitive types like integer and
characters can be treated as objects – something not available even in OO
languages like C++.
Multi-Language Support
Generally enterprises have varying skill sets. For example, a company might have
people with skills in Visual Basic, C++, and Java etc. It is an experience that
whenever a new language or environment is invented existing skills are outdated.
This naturally increases cost of training and learning curve. .NET provides
something attractive in this area. It supports multiple languages. This means that
if you have skills in C++, you need not throw them but just mould them to suit
.NET environment. Currently four languages are available right out of the box
namely – Visual Basic.NET, C# (pronounced as C-sharp), Jscript.NET and
Managed C++ (a dialect of Visual C++). There are many vendors that are
working on developing language compilers for other languages (20+ language
compilers are already available). The beauty of multi language support lies in the
fact that even though the syntax of each language is different, the basic
capabilities of each language remain at par with one another.
Multi-Device Support
Modern lift style is increasingly embracing mobile and wireless devices such as
PDAs, mobiles and handheld PCs. . . .NET provides promising platform for
programming such devices. .NET Compact Framework and Mobile Internet
Toolkit are step ahead in this direction.
Automatic memory management
While developing applications developers had to develop an eye on system
resources like memory. Memory leaks were major reason in failure of
applications. .NET takes this worry away from developer by handling memory on
its own. The garbage collector takes care of freeing unused objects at appropriate
intervals.
Compatibility with COM and COM+
Before the introduction of .NET, COM was the de-facto standard for
componentized software development. Companies have invested lot of money and
efforts in developing COM components and controls. The good news is – you can
still use COM components and ActiveX controls under .NET. This allows you to
use your existing investment in .NET applications. .NET still relies on COM+ for
features like transaction management and object pooling. In fact it provides
enhanced declarative support for configuring COM+ application right from your
source code. Your COM+ knowledge still remains as a valuable asset.
No more DLL Hell
If you have worked with COM components, you probably are aware of “DLL
hell”. DLL conflicts are a common fact in COM world. The main reason behind
this was the philosophy of COM – “one version of component across machine”.
Also, COM components require registration in the system registry. .NET ends this
DLL hell by allowing applications to use their own copy of dependent DLLs.
Also, .NET components do not require any kind of registration in system registry.
Strong XML support
Now days it is hard to find a programmer who is unaware of XML. XML has
gained such a strong industry support that almost all the vendors have released
some kind of upgrades or patches to their existing software to make it “XML
compatible”. Currently, .NET is the only platform that has built with XML right
into the core framework. .NET tries to harness power of XML in every possible
way. In addition to providing support for manipulating and transforming XML
documents, .NET provides XML web services that are based on standards like
HTTP, XML and SOAP.
Ease of deployment and configuration
Deploying windows applications especially that used COM components were
always been a tedious task. Since .NET does not require any registration as such,
much of the deployment is simplified. This makes XCOPY deployment viable.
Configuration is another area where .NET – especially ASP.NET – shines over
traditional languages. The configuration is done via special files having special
XML vocabulary. Since, most of the configuration is done via configuration files,
there is no need to sit in front of actual machine and configure the application
manually. This is more important for web applications; simply FTPing new
configuration file makes necessary changes.
Security
Windows platform was always criticized for poor security mechanisms. Microsoft
has taken great efforts to make .NET platform safe and secure for enterprise
applications. Features such as type safety, code access security and role based
authentication make overall application more robust and secure.
platform for developing modern applications.
Rich Functionality out of the box
.NET framework provides a rich set of functionality out of the box. It contains
hundreds of classes that provide variety of functionality ready to use in your
applications. This means that as a developer you need not go into low level details
of many operations such as file IO, network communication and so on.
Easy development of web applications
ASP.NET is a technology available on .NET platform for developing dynamic
and data driven web applications. ASP.NET provides an event driven
programming model (similar to Visual Basic 6 that simplify development of web
pages (now called as web forms) with complex user interface. ASP.NET server
controls provide advanced user interface elements (like calendar and grids) that
save lot of coding from programmer’s side.
OOPs Support
The advantages of Object Oriented programming are well known. .NET provides
a fully object oriented environment. The philosophy of .NET is – “Object is
mother of all.” Languages like Visual Basic.NET now support many of the OO
features that were lacking traditionally. Even primitive types like integer and
characters can be treated as objects – something not available even in OO
languages like C++.
Multi-Language Support
Generally enterprises have varying skill sets. For example, a company might have
people with skills in Visual Basic, C++, and Java etc. It is an experience that
whenever a new language or environment is invented existing skills are outdated.
This naturally increases cost of training and learning curve. .NET provides
something attractive in this area. It supports multiple languages. This means that
if you have skills in C++, you need not throw them but just mould them to suit
.NET environment. Currently four languages are available right out of the box
namely – Visual Basic.NET, C# (pronounced as C-sharp), Jscript.NET and
Managed C++ (a dialect of Visual C++). There are many vendors that are
working on developing language compilers for other languages (20+ language
compilers are already available). The beauty of multi language support lies in the
fact that even though the syntax of each language is different, the basic
capabilities of each language remain at par with one another.
Multi-Device Support
Modern lift style is increasingly embracing mobile and wireless devices such as
PDAs, mobiles and handheld PCs. . . .NET provides promising platform for
programming such devices. .NET Compact Framework and Mobile Internet
Toolkit are step ahead in this direction.
Automatic memory management
While developing applications developers had to develop an eye on system
resources like memory. Memory leaks were major reason in failure of
applications. .NET takes this worry away from developer by handling memory on
its own. The garbage collector takes care of freeing unused objects at appropriate
intervals.
Compatibility with COM and COM+
Before the introduction of .NET, COM was the de-facto standard for
componentized software development. Companies have invested lot of money and
efforts in developing COM components and controls. The good news is – you can
still use COM components and ActiveX controls under .NET. This allows you to
use your existing investment in .NET applications. .NET still relies on COM+ for
features like transaction management and object pooling. In fact it provides
enhanced declarative support for configuring COM+ application right from your
source code. Your COM+ knowledge still remains as a valuable asset.
No more DLL Hell
If you have worked with COM components, you probably are aware of “DLL
hell”. DLL conflicts are a common fact in COM world. The main reason behind
this was the philosophy of COM – “one version of component across machine”.
Also, COM components require registration in the system registry. .NET ends this
DLL hell by allowing applications to use their own copy of dependent DLLs.
Also, .NET components do not require any kind of registration in system registry.
Strong XML support
Now days it is hard to find a programmer who is unaware of XML. XML has
gained such a strong industry support that almost all the vendors have released
some kind of upgrades or patches to their existing software to make it “XML
compatible”. Currently, .NET is the only platform that has built with XML right
into the core framework. .NET tries to harness power of XML in every possible
way. In addition to providing support for manipulating and transforming XML
documents, .NET provides XML web services that are based on standards like
HTTP, XML and SOAP.
Ease of deployment and configuration
Deploying windows applications especially that used COM components were
always been a tedious task. Since .NET does not require any registration as such,
much of the deployment is simplified. This makes XCOPY deployment viable.
Configuration is another area where .NET – especially ASP.NET – shines over
traditional languages. The configuration is done via special files having special
XML vocabulary. Since, most of the configuration is done via configuration files,
there is no need to sit in front of actual machine and configure the application
manually. This is more important for web applications; simply FTPing new
configuration file makes necessary changes.
Security
Windows platform was always criticized for poor security mechanisms. Microsoft
has taken great efforts to make .NET platform safe and secure for enterprise
applications. Features such as type safety, code access security and role based
authentication make overall application more robust and secure.
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