Overview of the structure of the .NET Framework is shown in following figure
The first thing that you should notice when looking at this diagram is that the .NET Framework sits on top of the operating system. Presently, the operating systems that can take the .NET Framework include Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.
At the base of the .NET Framework is the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR is the engine that manages the execution of the code.
The next layer up is the .NET Framework Base Classes. This layer contains classes, value types, and interfaces that you will use often in your development process. Most notably within the .NET Framework Base Classes is ADO.NET, which provides access to and management of data.
The third layer of the framework is ASP.NET and Windows Forms. ASP.NET should not be viewed as the next version of Active Server Pages after ASP 3.0, but as a dramatically new shift in Web application development. Using ASP.NET, it’s now possible to build robust Web applications that are even more functional than Win32 applications of the past. This was always quite difficult to do in the stateless nature of the Internet, but ASP.NET offers a number of different solutions to overcome the traditional limitations on the types of applications that were possible. The ASP.NET section of the .NET Framework is also where the XML Web services model resides.
The second part of the top layer of the .NET Framework is the Windows Forms section. This is where you can build the traditional executable applications that you built with Visual Basic 6.0 in the past. There are some new features here as well, such as a new drawing class and the capability to program these applications in any of the available .NET languages. You may view XML Web services as something you use within the ASP.NET applications that you build, but this isn’t the only place where you can consume XML Web services. It's quite possible to consume XML Web services within a Windows Form application and a number of other application types, just as you can from any ASP.NET Web application.
Tags: .NET Technology, Dot Net Technology
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