Software Environment

4.1 features OF. Net

Microsoft .NET is a set of Microsoft software technologies

for rapidly building and integrating XML Web services, Microsoft
Windows-based applications, and Web solutions. The .NET Framework
is a language-neutral platform for writing programs that can easily and
securely interoperate. There’s no language barrier with .NET: there are
numerous languages available to the developer including Managed C++,
C#, Visual Basic and Java Script. The .NET framework provides the
foundation for components to interact seamlessly, whether locally or
remotely on different platforms. It standardizes common data types and
communications protocols so that components created in different
languages can easily interoperate.

“.NET” is also the collective name given to various

software components built upon the .NET platform. These will be both
products (Visual Studio.NET and Windows.NET Server, for instance)
and services (like Passport, .NET My Services, and so on).

THE .NET FRAMEWORK

The .NET Framework has two main parts:

1. The Common Language Runtime (CLR).
2. A hierarchical set of class libraries.
The CLR is described as the “execution engine” of .NET. It provides the
environment within which programs run. The most important features are
  Conversion from a low-level assembler-style language,
called Intermediate Language (IL), into code native to the
platform being executed on.
 Memory management, notably including garbage collection.
 Checking and enforcing security restrictions on the running
code.
 Loading and executing programs, with version control and
other such features.
 The following features of the .NET framework are also
worth description:
Managed Code

The code that targets .NET, and which contains certain extra
Information - “metadata” - to describe itself. Whilst both managed and
unmanaged code can run in the runtime, only managed code contains the
information that allows the CLR to guarantee, for instance, safe execution
and interoperability.
Managed Data

With Managed Code comes Managed Data. CLR provides

memory allocation and Deal location facilities, and garbage collection.
Some .NET languages use Managed Data by default, such as C#, Visual
Basic.NET and JScript.NET, whereas others, namely C++, do not.
Targeting CLR can, depending on the language you’re using, impose
certain constraints on the features available. As with managed and
unmanaged code, one can have both managed and unmanaged data
in .NET applications - data that doesn’t get garbage collected but instead
is looked after by unmanaged code.
Common Type System

The CLR uses something called the Common Type System (CTS)
to strictly enforce type-safety. This ensures that all classes are compatible
with each other, by describing types in a common way. CTS define how
types work within the runtime, which enables types in one language to
interoperate with types in another language, including cross-language
exception handling. As well as ensuring that types are only used in
appropriate ways, the runtime also ensures that code doesn’t attempt to
access memory that hasn’t been allocated to it.
Common Language Specification

The CLR provides built-in support for language interoperability.

To ensure that you can develop managed code that can be fully used by
developers using any programming language, a set of language features
and rules for using them called the Common Language Specification
(CLS) has been defined. Components that follow these rules and expose
only CLS features are considered CLS-compliant.
THE CLASS LIBRARY

.NET provides a single-rooted hierarchy of classes,

containing over 7000 types. The root of the namespace is called System;
this contains basic types like Byte, Double, Boolean, and String, as well
as Object. All objects derive from System. Object. As well as objects,
there are value types. Value types can be allocated on the stack, which
can provide useful flexibility. There are also efficient means of
converting value types to object types if and when necessary.
The set of classes is pretty comprehensive, providing
collections, file, screen, and network I/O, threading, and so on, as well as
XML and database connectivity.
 The class library is subdivided into a number of sets (or
namespaces), each providing distinct areas of functionality, with
dependencies between the namespaces kept to a minimum.
LANGUAGES SUPPORTED BY .NET

The multi-language capability of the .NET Framework and

Visual Studio .NET enables developers to use their existing programming
skills to build all types of applications and XML Web services. The .NET
framework supports new versions of Microsoft’s old favorites Visual
Basic and C++ (as VB.NET and Managed C++), but there are also a
number of new additions to the family.

Visual Basic .NET has been updated to include many new

and improved language features that make it a powerful object-oriented
programming language. These features include inheritance, interfaces,
and overloading, among others. Visual Basic also now supports
structured exception handling, custom attributes and also supports multi-
threading.
Visual Basic .NET is also CLS compliant, which means that
any CLS-compliant language can use the classes, objects, and
components you create in Visual Basic .NET.
Managed Extensions for C++ and attributed programming
are just some of the enhancements made to the C++ language. Managed
Extensions simplify the task of migrating existing C++ applications to the
new .NET Framework.
C# is Microsoft’s new language. It’s a C-style language that
is essentially “C++ for Rapid Application Development”. Unlike other
languages, its specification is just the grammar of the language. It has no
standard library of its own, and instead has been designed with the
intention of using the .NET libraries as its own.
 Microsoft Visual J# .NET provides the easiest transition for
Java-language developers into the world of XML Web Services and
dramatically improves the interoperability of Java-language programs
with existing software written in a variety of other programming
languages.

Active State has created Visual Perl and Visual Python,

which enable .NET-aware applications to be built in either Perl or
Python. Both products can be integrated into the Visual Studio .NET
environment. Visual Perl includes support for Active State’s Perl Dev
Kit.
Other languages for which .NET compilers are available include
 FORTRAN
 COBOL
 Eiffel

Fig1 .Net Framework

ASP.NET Windows

XML WEB Forms

SERVICES

Base Class Libraries

Common Language Runtime

Operating System
C#.NET is also compliant with CLS (Common Language
Specification) and supports structured exception handling. CLS is set
of rules and constructs that are supported by the CLR (Common
Language Runtime). CLR is the runtime environment provided by
the .NET Framework; it manages the execution of the code and also
makes the development process easier by providing services.

C#.NET is a CLS-compliant language. Any objects, classes, or

components that created in C#.NET can be used in any other CLS-
compliant language. In addition, we can use objects, classes, and
components created in other CLS-compliant languages in
C#.NET .The use of CLS ensures complete interoperability among
applications, regardless of the languages used to create the application.

CONSTRUCTORS AND DESTRUCTORS:

Constructors are used to initialize objects, whereas destructors

are used to destroy them. In other words, destructors are used to
release the resources allocated to the object. In C#.NET the sub
finalize procedure is available. The sub finalize procedure is used to
complete the tasks that must be performed when an object is
destroyed. The sub finalize procedure is called automatically when an
object is destroyed. In addition, the sub finalize procedure can be
called only from the class it belongs to or from derived classes.

GARBAGE COLLECTION

Garbage Collection is another new feature in C#.NET. The .NET

Framework monitors allocated resources, such as objects and
variables. In addition, the .NET Framework automatically releases
memory for reuse by destroying objects that are no longer in use.
In C#.NET, the garbage collector checks for the objects that are not
currently in use by applications. When the garbage collector comes
across an object that is marked for garbage collection, it releases the
memory occupied by the object.

OVERLOADING

Overloading is another feature in C#. Overloading enables us to define

multiple procedures with the same name, where each procedure has a
different set of arguments. Besides using overloading for procedures,
we can use it for constructors and properties in a class.

MULTITHREADING:

C#.NET also supports multithreading. An application that supports

multithreading can handle multiple tasks simultaneously, we can use
multithreading to decrease the time taken by an application to respond
to user interaction.

STRUCTURED EXCEPTION HANDLING

C#.NET supports structured handling, which enables us to

detect and remove errors at runtime. In C#.NET, we need to use Try…
Catch…Finally statements to create exception handlers. Using Try…
Catch…Finally statements, we can create robust and effective
exception handlers to improve the performance of our application.
 THE .NET FRAMEWORK

The .NET Framework is a new computing platform that simplifies

application development in the highly distributed environment of the
Internet.

OBJECTIVES OF. NET FRAMEWORK

1. To provide a consistent object-oriented programming environment

whether object codes is stored and executed locally on Internet-
distributed, or executed remotely.

2. To provide a code-execution environment to minimizes software

deployment and guarantees safe execution of code.

3. Eliminates the performance problems.

There are different types of application, such as Windows-based

applications and Web-based applications.

4.3 Features of SQL-SERVER

The OLAP Services feature available in SQL Server version
7.0 is now called SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. The term OLAP
Services has been replaced with the term Analysis Services. Analysis
Services also includes a new data mining component. The Repository
component available in SQL Server version 7.0 is now called Microsoft
SQL Server 2000 Meta Data Services. References to the component now
use the term Meta Data Services. The term repository is used only in
reference to the repository engine within Meta Data Services
 SQL-SERVER database consist of six type of objects,
They are,
1. TABLE
2. QUERY
3. FORM
4. REPORT
5. MACRO
TABLE:
A database is a collection of data about a specific
topic.
VIEWS OF TABLE:
We can work with a table in two types,
1. Design View
2. Datasheet View
Design View
To build or modify the structure of a table we work in
the table design view. We can specify what kind of data will be hold.
Datasheet View
To add, edit or analyses the data itself we work in
tables datasheet view mode.
QUERY:
A query is a question that has to be asked the data. Access gathers
data that answers the question from one or more table. The data that make
up the answer is either dynaset (if you edit it) or a snapshot (it cannot be
edited).Each time we run query, we get latest information in the dynaset.
Access either displays the dynaset or snapshot for us to view or perform
an action on it, such as deleting or updating.