Overview of the Microsoft .NET Framework.doc

Overview of the Microsoft .NET Framework So far in this course, we have concentrated on one part of .NET, the Foundation Class Libraries. However, there’s more to .NET than the FCL. This lecture will tell you about other parts of .NET. The Web has changed computing, and will change it more. In 1992 it seemed like a dream that you could connect to a computer in Sweden, click on a link and be connected to a computer in Japan. Now it seems normal. Today it seems like a dream that you could use a program on your computer and it would call on other programs running on computers in Sweden and Japan, performing tasks for you. Of course, to some extent that is now achieved through a Web browser, using server-side programming. For example, if I want to know the cheapest source of two tons of 16-gauge copper wire, I might be able to find it. This kind of thing is called “business to business” Web services (B2B). Since I’ve been giving this lecture for several years now, I have inadvertently stumbled upon an unscientific way of documenting the growth of B2B services: In fall 2004 I could find a supplier in the United Kingdom and one in East Orange, New Jersey In fall 2005 I couldn’t do any better with Google, at least not in five minutes. In fall 2006 I could find several sellers of small quantities of wire for use in jewelry. In fall 2007 things have developed considerably. Now, my problem is the opposite: there are so many suppliers of wire that I don’t know where to go. It seems that I need to know what I want to do with this wire, because there are different kinds. Do I want network wire, or aircraft wire, or electrical wire (in which case, civilian or military specs?), or what? There are Google ads from wire suppliers at the side of my search page clamoring for my attention, too. The existence and ubiquity (if you need it there’s a dictionary at ) of bad guys in the world makes it difficult for people to allow other people to run programs o