What is .net?
.NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source developer platform for building many different types of applications. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build for web, mobile, desktop, games, and IoT.
Here's a breakdown of key aspects:
- Languages: .NET primarily supports C#, F#, and Visual Basic. C# is the most commonly used language.
- Cross-Platform: .NET runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This allows you to build applications that can run on a variety of operating systems.
- Open Source: The .NET runtime and libraries are open-source, fostering community contributions and transparency.
- Framework vs. .NET (Core): Historically, there was .NET Framework (Windows-only) and .NET Core (cross-platform). Now, .NET is the unified platform, building upon .NET Core. Versions 5 and above are simply referred to as .NET.
- Runtime: The .NET runtime, known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR), manages the execution of .NET applications.
- Libraries: .NET comes with a vast set of libraries that provide pre-built functionality for common tasks such as data access, XML processing, and web development. The Base Class Library (BCL) is a fundamental part of .NET.
- ASP.NET: A framework for building web applications and web APIs.
- .NET MAUI: A cross-platform framework for building native mobile and desktop apps with C# and .NET.
Here's a list of the subjects from above as links: