Industrial Programming

Lecture 2: Introduction to .Net & C#

Ind. Programming 1
 Microsoft .Net
• Microsoft .Net is Microsoft's Internet
strategy.
• .Net was originally called NGWS - Next
Generation Windows Services.
• .Net is a Internet and Web based
infrastructure that will run in any browser.
• .Net and Java/JVM are modern, powerful
programming techniques and are equal
competitors.
Ind. Programming 2
 .Net Vs Java/JVM
• Java is a programming language designed to be
run on many different platforms, and so uses a
common language (Java) which has to be
compiled and run on different platforms (eg.
windows, mac and linux).
• Microsoft, with their offering of .NET, takes on a
different approach, by allowing you to program in
any language (VB.Net, C#, F#) you choose, but
has compilers for many different languages that
generates a platform specific code (i.e. Microsoft
or Windows).
Ind. Programming 3
 .Net vs Java Framework

Ind. Programming 4
 Advantages and Disadvantages
of .Net
• One advantage of using .Net is that you are not
stuck with one language: a multi-language
solution is easier to provide than with a Java.
• One disadvantage is that MS has
implemented .Net such that it is not nearly as
portable as Java. For example, you can't use
MS's .Net tools to compile an executable that will
run on Linux or Solaris in addition to Windows,
while you can do this with Java.

Ind. Programming 5
 Suitability of .Net
• Java can be used to write programs for
many different operating systems,
and .Net can be used to make any
programming language into a Windows
program.
• .Net is suitable for professionals who want
to develop an application for windows
easier than using Java for the same.

Ind. Programming 6
 The .Net Framework
• The .Net Framework is a common
environment for building, deploying, and
running Web Services and Web
Applications.
• Main components:
– The Common Language Specification (CLS).
– The Common Type System (CTS).
– The Common Language Runtime (CLR).
– The .Net Framework Class Library (FCL).

Ind. Programming 7
 Common Language Specification
(CLS)

• Defines a set of language features, e.g.

how methods and constructors are called.
• Allows .Net applications to fully interact
with other objects regardless of the
language in which they were implemented.

Ind. Programming 8
 Cont. Common Language
Specification (CLS)
• In an object-oriented environment such as C# and the .Net platform,
everything is an object. Once an object is created it needs to be able
to communicate or interact with other objects.

• These other objects may have been created in a different language,

for example C++, C#, J#, F#.

• The .Net platform overcomes this problem by implementing the

Common Type System (CTS). The Common Type System means
that every language in .Net uses the same data types (or objects).
When you declare a string in C# you are creating an instance of a
string class. When you define a string in Visual Basic, you create an
instance of the same string class, thus when you pass parameters
between languages there is no longer any requirement to convert
data types.

Ind. Programming 9
 The Common Type System (CTS)
• Defines how types are declared, used, and
managed in CLR.
• Specifies a set of types that any
programming language in CLR should
implement.
• Two type categories: Value types and
reference types.

Ind. Programming 10
 Cont. The Common Type System
(CTS)
• Languages often define aliases
• E.g. CTS defines System.Int32 – 4 byte
integer
– C# defines int as an alias of
System.Int32

Ind. Programming 11
 Classification of CTS Types

From MSDN
Ind. Programming 12
 The Common Language Runtime
(CLR)
• A virtual machine of the .Net framework.
• It is an implementation of Microsoft’s
Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)
standard.
– Defines an execution environment for
program code.
– It runs a form of bytecode called the
Microsoft Intermediate Language
(MSIL).
Ind. Programming 13
 Cont. The Common Language
Runtime (CLR)
• Developers write programs in C#, F# or
VB.Net

– At compile time, the CLR converts the

program into MSIL code.

– At runtime, the CLR’s just-in-time compiler

converts the MSIL code (CLI) into native
code (suitable for the underlying operating
system).
Ind. Programming 14
 Key Tasks for the CLR
• Class loading
• Assembly integrity check
• Security check
• Memory type safety check
• Just-in-time compilation
• Automatic memory management

Ind. Programming 15
 CLR Components
Base Class Library Support

Thread Support COM Marshaler

Type Checker Exception Manager

Security Engine Debug Engine

MSIL to Native Code Garbage

Compilers (JIT) Manager Collector (GC)

Class Loader

Source: MSDN

Ind. Programming 16
Ind. Programming 17
 The .Net Framework Class Library
(FCL)
• Contains thousands of reusable classes,
interfaces and value types.
• Grouped in namespaces.
• Fundamental functionality is provided by
the Base Class libraries (BCL) which is
part of FCL.
• Examples of FCL namespaces: System,
System.IO, System.Net, System.security
Ind. Programming 18
 C# Objectives and Features
• Simple, modern, general purpose, object-oriented
language;
• Support for … strong type checking, array bounds
checking, check for uninitialised variables, and
automatic garbage collection;
• Development of software components suitable for
deployment in distributed environments;
• For applications both for hosted and embedded
systems

Ind. Programming 19
 C# Features
• Many features have been picked up
from Java
• … but also from other languages eg C++
• Notable for systems programming:
support for low-level C-style
programming
• C# was developed out of C and C++

Ind. Programming 20
Ind. Programming 21
Feature Comparison Java vs C#
• Platform portability:
– Java: high (based on a portable JVM)
– C#: low (tailored for .Net on Windows)
• Simplicity:
– Java: simple & easy to learn
– C#: more difficult to learn, with
convenience features
• Intermediate Code:
– Java: JVM bytecode
Ind. Programming 22
– C#: IL in .Net assemblies
 The Hello World C# Program
using System;
namespace HelloWorld
{
class Hello
{
static void Main()
{
System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

}
}
}
Ind. Programming 23
Hello World Program Explained
• using System:
– The "using" command allows us to specify
which libraries namespaces we want access
to.
– It is similar to Java's import.
– The "System" library contains the
namespaces for all common .NET variables
such as System.Int32 (which represents an
integer) amongst other things.
– The System namespace also contains core
classes including the Console class.
Ind. Programming 24
 Cont. Hello World Program
Explained
• namespace HelloWorld
– Defines a new namespace HelloWorld
– Namespaces separate code into individually named
containers and avoids the danger of having duplicate
variable names within the scope of a block.
• class Hello
– Define a class named Hello in the namespace.
– Just like in Java or C++, C# uses classes to facilitate
its object-orientated design methodology. Classes
allow us to create individual self-contained units of
code, which can be instantiated throughout our
application. All C# applications must contain at least
one class.
Ind. Programming 25
 Cont. Hello World Program
Explained
• static void Main()

– All C# applications must have a Main() function (Note: capital

'M'), which is the entry point for execution of the application.
– In contrast to Java, Main() can be declared without arguments.
– The Main() function is declared as public by default, since it is
called from the outside.
– Main can return either an integer variable type or nothing, with
void. Main can take an array of strings as (command-line)
arguments, and can return an int value as return code eg:

public static int Main(string []args)

{

}
Ind. Programming 26
 Cont. Hello World Program
Explained

• System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World!")

– A call to the WriteLine() function of the

Console class.
– It writes “Hello World” to the console.
– A message “ Hello World” appears on the
screen on compiling and executing this code.

Ind. Programming 27
 Compiling and Executing the code
• Type the code in the notepad and save the file into c:\ or any directory you
wish, and then minimise notepad.

• Now that we've created our source code file, we have to compile it using
.NET's built-in C# compiler, "csc.exe".

• Open a new command prompt window and change the path to the directory
where you saved the file "helloworld.cs”.

• Enter the following command to compile our C# source code file:

csc helloworld.cs
To execute our application, simply type:
helloworld

• You should get the result now.

Ind. Programming 28
Your screen should look like this

Ind. Programming 29
 Using Visual Studio
• Under projects, choose a new
ConsoleApplication
• Enter the program in the main window that
comes up
• To compile, build project
• To run, choose debug menu

Ind. Programming 30
 Another Example
class TestClass {
public static void Main () {
MyClass m = new MyClass();
System.Console.WriteLine(“99*2 = {0}”,
m.Double(99));
}
}
class MyClass {
public int Double(int val) {
return val*2;
}
} Programming
Ind. 31
 Differences to Java
• The filename can be different to the class name
• A file can contain several public classes and interfaces
• Each of the classes can have its own Main function
• To denote the starting point of the execution, the main
class has to be specified on the command line, eg.
csc Hello.cs /main:Class1
• To compile C# code into a library, rather than a
standalone executable, call csc like this
csc /target:library Hello.cs

Ind. Programming 32
 Download Instructions
• As student, you can download Visual Studio for free, through the
Microsoft Dreamspark programme.
• Goto to this HWU software page:
http://www.hw.ac.uk/is/it-essentials/software.htm

• From there follow the 'Microsoft Dreamspark' link to

https://www.dreamspark.com/

• You need to request access through the central help-desk

[email protected]

Ind. Programming 34
 Linux Setup for C#
• Download from http://www.go-mono.com/
• Install a recent version of mono eg.
mono-2.4.2.2-1mdv2009.1
• Compile like this
gmcs hello.cs
• Run like this
mono hello.exe
• For an IDE use
monodevelop-2.0-1mdv2009.1
Ind. Programming 35
 Useful Links
.Net Framework to run C# applications - Download Instructions:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx

C# Basics and Hello World Program

• http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/C-Sharp/Csharp-Introduction

• http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/C-Sharp/The-Basics-of-Csharp-A-HelloWorld-
Application/1/

• http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/C-Sharp/The-Basics-of-Csharp-A-HelloWorld-
Application/2/

More C# Tutorials


http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorials.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288436(VS.71).aspx
Ind. Programming 36