Article from HRCentral News

So what exactly is Microsoft .NET (“dot net”)? Without getting into the extensive history of the development of operating systems and programming languages, .NET is Microsoft’s attempt to solve all the problems of operating system platforms and development in one complete solution. How successful is this solution? Let’s take a look:

First, .NET is not a new operating system like Windows. It is true that Microsoft referred to Windows Server 2003 by the name Windows .NET prior to its final release, but that was more a reflection of the new direction Microsoft was moving with full support for the Microsoft .NET framework.

Second, .NET is not a programming language. Several programming languages come included with .NET including Visual Basic .NET, C++, C# (pronounced sharp), and J#. Other vendors are creating additional languages for use in .NET such as Borland’s Pascal and Delphi for .NET.

Microsoft .NET is a platform or framework for development. This includes additions or changes to the operating system, and also includes a series of new languages. Microsoft defines .NET as “a set of Microsoft software technologies for connecting information, people, systems, and devices.”

What is a framework, and why is this important? Over the years, the layers between programming and the actual hardware of the computer have slowly increased. In the early years of computers, programmers wrote code that directly interacted with the hardware (disks, video displays, keyboards, printers) of a computer. As computers and computer hardware became more sophisticated, this type of programming became more complex and difficult. For example, imagine trying to write a program that can support all the different brands and models of printers available for a personal computer. To ease this process, more and more of the hardware-specific functionality was moved to the operating system of the computer. Now, to instruct a program to print, you simply told your program to print to the operating system, and let the operating system handle the printing process—using whatever printers were available.

A framework is a set of standards and interfaces for programming. For example, printing—from a program’s perspective—is simply sending text and graphics to a piece of paper. The type of printer is unimportant. Microsoft .NET provides a framework for this type of activity as well as many others including: networking, multimedia (graphics and sound), database connectivity, and file management.

Other development frameworks exist and are in current use including COM (.NET’s predecessor) and Java (created by Sun Microsystems). There are a number of significant differences between these and .NET, but this topic is beyond the scope of this article.

Should I worry about whether or not the software I am investing in is written using the .NET framework? Probably not; for the user, there will be no noticeable difference between software written using the .NET framework vs. using software written in other frameworks. However, Microsoft is moving its full support into .NET, and will gradually phase out support for previous development platforms. Therefore, from a developer’s standpoint, it will be important to eventually adopt the .NET framework for future development projects.

How does Microsoft .NET benefit me or my organization? Microsoft .NET is a new development platform. It provides many benefits to developers including more rapid development, stronger security, better connectivity, and easier implementation. For a general overview of the basic elements of .NET, visit http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics/whatis.asp.