Programming in the .NET Environment

The .NET Framework has undergone numerous name changes throughout its history. First, it was known as Project 42, then renamed COR, and subsequently called Lightning, COM+2.0, and NGWS (Next Generation Web Services). It was finally renamed the .NET Framework only weeks before its launch at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Orlando in July 2000. ^[1]

^[1] An interesting aside about the history of the .NET Framework: Every .NET Framework executable contains the string "BSJB". This magic string refers to some of the original developers of the .NET Framework ”Brian Harry, Susan Radke-Sproull, Jason Zander, and Bill Evans.

Core elements of the .NET Framework have been standardized by the ECMA. A major reason for standardizing the .NET Framework is to permit other implementations of the framework to be built. Apart from the commercial Windows-based implementation, Microsoft has built shared-source implementations for Windows and BSD UNIX; it is hoped that other implementations from different groups will follow. For information on the standardization effort, interested readers should visit the following Web site:

http://www.ecma.ch

The .NET Framework standardization effort is detailed at the following Web site:

http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-335.htm

The C# language standard is found at the following address:

http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ECMA-334.htm

You can find out more about the shared-source implementations at the following Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/sscli