What is CLR?

Microsoft ' s. NET is a broad family of all products representing ' s next generation of services, software, and devel Opment tools. At the core of the. NET strategy lives the Common Language Runtime. The CLR is a platform for software development This provides services by consuming metadata. It is standards-based and component-oriented. Like any platform, the important pieces are the runtime, the libraries that provide access to them, and the languages that can target the platform.
But what exactly is. NET? Although the precise meaning can is a little hard to isolate by reading the prolific marketing, a literature little G reveals that. NET are in fact Microsoft's grand strategy as all of their software, systems, and services'll fit to Gether. It includes development tools (like the new version of Visual Studio, dubbed Visual Studio.NET), future versions of their Windows operating systems, new internet-based services (like a stepped-up version of their Passport Web authentication ser Vice), and an entirely new beast called the Common Language.
The Common Language Runtime is the a single most important piece to the. NET product strategy, because it is in essence the Engine that pulls the train-the CLR are how developers'll write software in the Brave new. NET 1.
The CLR as a development platform
The CLR is a development platform. Like any platform, it provides a runtime, defines functionality in some libraries, and supports a set of programming Langu Ages.
The CLR is a platform for developing applications. A platform is a set of programmatic services, exposed through some APIs to developers using one or more languages. Development generally targets a single platform;
The CLR is isn't a operating system in the strict sense of the term-it does does, for example, provide a file system, rely ing instead on the underlying OS (such as Windows) to implement that feature.
Break down the feature set of the platform (CLR) into three fundamental areas:the runtime this platform offers, the L Ibraries it defines, and the languages I ' m going to-use. These aspects of the platform overlap (= Figure 2), and understanding each of them and the ways in which they I s crucial to becoming an effective CLR programmer.