The truth that this variety of languages can coexist inside .NET is likely one of the platform’s strengths. As a result of the code all will get compiled to CIL bytecode, it doesn’t matter which language you utilize to jot down your purposes. You’re free to resolve based mostly in your preferences, the strengths and weaknesses of every language, or the completely different elements of .NET you’ll be able to entry based mostly on the language you utilize (these differ). Whereas most of .NET’s base class library was written in C#, you’ll be able to entry these lessons from code written in different CLI languages. Elements written in numerous CLI languages can freely interoperate throughout a .NET software.
.NET historical past
Up to now, I’ve used “.NET” as a generic time period to seek advice from the platform, however the .NET ecosystem is definitely a bit extra complicated. As a result of .NET is an open commonplace, anybody might probably implement their very own model of it. For a lot of the platform’s historical past, Microsoft’s model was referred to as the .NET Framework. One other well-known implementation was Mono, launched in 2001. Mono was an open supply implementation for operating .NET purposes on Linux, and was controversial on the time on account of dangerous blood between Microsoft and the open supply group. Later, Mono fashioned the premise of the Xamarin platform, which made it doable to construct .NET purposes for iOS, Android, and macOS in addition to Linux. Xamarin started life because the brainchild of Mono’s founders, however the firm they based to assist the venture was finally acquired by Microsoft.
By 2014, Microsoft and the developer group have been trying to consolidate their efforts right into a .NET implementation rebuilt from the bottom up. The end result was what was initially referred to as .NET Core, a cross-platform implementation of the .NET commonplace that shed a few of the cruft that had accrued over time and was launched as open supply in 2016. Initially, it lacked the total vary of options accessible within the .NET Framework, and so the .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin all coexisted, which understandably induced some confusion. In 2017, InfoWorld columnist Simon Bisson grappled with the query of which implementation ought to be used wherein contexts.
