CS6004

Application
Development

Lecture 1

Chamila Karunatilake
[email protected]
Outline

• Introduction to MS .NET for application development

• Introduction to C#
• Getting started with Visual Studio
• Creating, debugging and running simple C# programs
Microsoft .NET for application development

• In 2000, Microsoft announced its .NET initiative, a broad vision for

using the Internet and the web in the development, engineering,
distribution and use of software.
• Developers can create .NET applications in any .NET-compatible
language (such as C#, Visual Basic, and others).
• Part of the initiative includes Microsoft’s ASP.NET technology,
which allows you to create web applications.
• Visual programming has become popular because it enables you
to create Windows and web applications easily, using such
prepackaged controls as buttons, textboxes and scrollbars.
• The .NET Framework executes applications, includes the .NET
Framework Class Library and provides many other programming
capabilities that you’ll use to build C# applications.
 The .NET Framework

The .NET Framework has two main

components
1. the common language runtime,
which manages memory, thread
execution, code execution, code
safety verification, compilation,
and other system services
2. the .NET Framework class library,
which is a collection of reusable
types that tightly integrate with the
common language runtime.
Common Language Runtime(CLR)

• The details of the .NET Framework are found in the Common Language
Infrastructure (CLI), which contains information about the storage of
data types, objects and so on.
• The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the central part of the .NET
Framework; it executes .NET programs.
• Programs are compiled into machine-specific instructions in two steps.
Common Language Runtime(CLR)

• First, the program is compiled into Microsoft Intermediate Language

(MSIL), which defines instructions for the CLR.
• Code converted into MSIL from other languages and sources can be
woven together by the CLR.
• The MSIL for an application’s components is placed into the application’s
executable file.
• When the application executes, another compiler (known as the just-in-
time compiler or JIT compiler) in the CLR translates the MSIL in the
executable file into machine-language code (for a particular platform),
then the machine-language code executes on that platform.
Common Language Runtime(CLR)

• The .NET Framework also provides a high level of language

interoperability.
• Programs written in different languages (for example, C# and Visual
Basic) are all compiled into MSIL—the different parts can be combined
to create a single unified program.
• MSIL allows the .NET Framework to be language independent, because
.NET programs are not tied to a particular programming language.
Common Language Runtime(CLR)

• The .NET Framework also provides a high level of language

interoperability.
• Programs written in different languages (for example, C# and Visual
Basic) are all compiled into MSIL—the different parts can be combined
to create a single unified program.
• MSIL allows the .NET Framework to be language independent, because
.NET programs are not tied to a particular programming language.
.NET Core

• .NET Core is a free open source, a general-purpose development

platform for developing modern cloud-based software applications on
Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems.
• It operates across several platforms and has been revamped to make
.NET fast, scalable, and modern.
• It offers the following features:
– Cross-Platform
– Open Source
– High Performance
– Multiple environments and development mode etc.
.NET Core
• .NET Core 1.0 was released on June 27, 2016, along with Microsoft
Visual Studio 2015.
• .NET Core 2.0 was released on August 14, 2017, along with Visual Studio
2017.
• .NET Core 3.0 was released on September 23, 2019 which included
support for Windows desktop application development.
• In November 2020, Microsoft released .NET 5.0. The "Core" branding
was removed, and version 4.0 was skipped to avoid conflation with .NET
Framework.
• In November 2021, Microsoft released .NET 6.0 and in November 2022
released .NET 7.0.
C# Programming language

• In 2000, Microsoft announced the C# (pronounced “C-Sharp”)

programming language—created specifically for the .NET platform.
• C# has roots in C, C++ and Java. Like Visual Basic, C# is object oriented
and has access to the powerful .NET Framework Class Library—a vast
collection of prebuilt components, enabling programmers to develop
applications quickly.
• C# has similar capabilities to Java and is appropriate for the most
demanding application development tasks, especially for building
today’s enterprise applications, and web-based and mobile
applications.
C# Programming language

• C# is object oriented—you’ll learn some basics of object technology

shortly and will study a rich treatment later in the book.
• C# is event driven—you’ll write programs that respond to user-
initiated events such as mouse clicks, keystrokes and timer
expirations.
• Microsoft’s Visual C# is indeed a visual programming language—in
addition to writing program statements to build portions of your
applications, you’ll also use Visual Studio’s graphical user interface to
conveniently drag and drop predefined objects like buttons and
textboxes into place on your screen, and label and resize them.
• Visual Studio will write much of the GUI code for you.
The .NET Framework Class library
• The .NET Class library’s types enable developers to accomplish a range of common
programming tasks, including tasks such as string management, data collection,
database connectivity, and file access.
• It also includes types that support a variety of specialized development scenarios.
For example, you can use the .NET Framework to develop the following types of
applications and services:
– Console applications
– Windows GUI applications (Windows Forms)
– Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications
– ASP.NET applications
– Windows services
– Service-oriented applications using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
– Workflow-enabled applications using Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)
ASP.NET

• ASP.NET is a unified Web development model that includes the

services necessary for you to build enterprise-class Web applications
with a minimum of coding
• ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework, and when coding ASP.NET
applications you have access to classes in the .NET Framework.
• You can code your applications in any language compatible with the
common language runtime (CLR), including Microsoft Visual Basic and
C#.
– These languages enable you to develop ASP.NET applications that
benefit from the common language runtime, type safety,
inheritance, and so on.
Questions?