With the credibility of Microsoft and the robust user experience offered by the applications, the .NET framework quickly found applications in the world of custom software development. The open-source and cross-platform development framework is used worldwide by small and large enterprises for building powerful web applications and websites.
The .NET framework is also widely used for developing games, Windows forms applications, console applications, IoT applications, and business-specific event-driven applications. Applications developed using .NET allow businesses to reach out to their target audience and provide interactive UI. The ease of operation offered by the framework has attracted many young developers to begin their careers with .NET.
If you are planning to use the Microsoft offering to build an application, let us have a look at some noteworthy features of the .NET framework before you start looking for a .NET development company:
Table of Contents
Language Interoperability
.NET provides language interoperability to developers while building software applications and services. This means that a code written in any language can be used by the other languages with the access provided to COM components. The development allows a code written in a specific language to interact with a code written in a different programming language.
This increases the reusability of the code and improves the development process. Language interoperability also makes software development more flexible, leaving scope for making important changes without facing hassles.
Writing Portable Programs
The .NET framework is not rigid and provides developers with a common platform for writing portable programs with different languages belonging to the .NET environment.
The development framework does so according to the open internet standards that allow different devices and applications to work together across wide and dispersed networks.
Ensuring Type Safety
Type safety offered by the .NET framework facilitates seamless and error-free development. When developers are executing a project, the type checker offered by .NET ensures that all values, objects, and references to these values and objects have a valid type.
For example, .NET’s type checker ensures that the developer assigns only the correct integer value to an integer variable. Moreover, the type checker ensures that developers perform only valid operations on specific values and objects while working on a project.
Common Execution Environment
All .NET applications and services run under a unified execution environment called the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR environment facilitates seamless interoperability between different languages belonging to the .NET environment, such as C++, C#, Visual Basic, etc. It does so by providing developers with a common environment for executing codes written in any of these languages.
Managed Multithreading Support
.NET applications running in the Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment can use managed multithreading support of the .NET framework. For undertaking most tasks, developers can reduce complexity by queuing suitable requests for execution.
No Performance Bottlenecks
The CLR environment offered by the .NET framework facilitates safe code execution and eliminates performance bottlenecks with its garbage collector. This way, it helps developers minimize development conflicts with namespaces and prevents versioning issues via assembly manifest. By getting rid of these problems, .NET prevents developers from making any compromise on the performance of the applications built by them.
Side-by-side Execution
One of the biggest advantages of the .NET framework is that it lets developers deploy several versions of an application on a system with the help of assemblies. Assemblies are dedicated deployment units of .NET that contain the IL code and metadata.
Here, the metadata stored valuable information like the version of the other assemblies the current assembly depends on. The CLR uses the information stored in the metadata for determining the application dependencies. This allows developers to execute different versions of a single application side-by-side.
Common Type System
The Common Type System by .NET provides developers with the necessary data types, object types, and values required for developing applications in multiple languages. All programming languages in the .NET environment share the Common Type System.
This means that a String in Visual C# will be the same as the String in Visual Basic.NET or Visual C++ NET. Moreover, all languages in the .NET environment have access to the same class libraries. All these languages are equally powerful, with none of them having the edge over the other. .NET ensures that there is no superior language in the environment.
Parallel Computing
Further making .NET development easier, the .NET Framework 4.0 introduced a new programming model that helps developers write asynchronous and multithreaded code. Known as parallel computing, the model simplifies the work of library and app developers such as IntelliSource.
Parallel development includes the development of more than one version of an object at a time. Such parallel execution of tasks in the system makes app development simpler and more effective.
Dynamic Language Runtime
Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) is a new runtime environment offered by .NET. It adds a set of services for several dynamic programming languages to the Common Language Runtime. The CLR environment makes it easy for developers to run dynamic languages on the .NET framework. It also allows developers to add dynamic features to statically-typed languages.
Automatic Memory Management
Developers are required to keep an eye on system resources like memory throughout the course of a development project. .NET resolves this issue by handling memory all by itself. With automatic memory management, .NET uses the garbage collector to free unused objects at suitable intervals.
High Security
Microsoft has been very careful in making .NET a secure development framework. It ensures that the applications built using the framework are secure and maintain the privacy of the data processed. By including features like code access security and type safety, Microsoft keeps .NET applications safe from unauthorized access, data leaks, hackers, and other cybersecurity issues.
The Final Word
These were some of the most important features of the .NET framework to keep in mind before building your custom software application. As you look for the right .NET developers, make sure they are in tune with your business objectives and possess the expertise to build applications that are unique to your organization.
