Sams Teach Yourself .Net in 21 Days

By Jason Beres

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • About the Technical Editor
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You
  • Introduction
  • Week 1: At a Glance
  • Day 1. Introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework
    • What Is .NET?
    • Windows of the Past
    • The Common Language Runtime
    • Understanding the Common Language Specification
    • Understanding the Common Type System
    • Handling Memory and Garbage
    • The .NET Framework Class Library
    • What about C++?
    • .NET Servers and the Future of .NET
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Exercises
  • Day 2. Introduction to Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 3. Writing Windows Forms Applications
  • Day 4. Deploying Windows Forms Applications
  • Day 5. Writing ASP.NET Applications
  • Day 6. Deploying ASP.NET Applications
  • Day 7. Exceptions, Debugging, and Tracing
  • Week 1. In Review
  • Week 2: At a Glance
  • Day 8. Core Language Concepts in Visual Basic .NET and C#
  • Day 9. Using Namespaces in .NET
  • Day 10. Accessing Data with ADO.NET
  • Day 11. Understanding Visual Database Tools
  • Day 12. Accessing XML in .NET
  • Day 13. XML Web Services in .NET
  • Day 14. Components and .NET
  • Week 2. In Review
  • Week 3: At a Glance
  • Day 15. Writing International Applications
  • Day 16. Using Macros in Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 17. Automating Visual Studio .NET
  • Day 18. Using Crystal Reports
  • Day 19. Understanding Microsoft Application Center Test
  • Day 20. Using Visual SourceSafe
  • Day 21. Object Role Modeling with Visio
  • Week 3. In Review

Q&A

1. I'm confused. What's the difference between the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET?

   The .NET Framework provides the execution environment in which code written using Visual Studio .NET runs. Visual Studio .NET is simply the tool to write the code, whereas the .NET Framework actually provides the runtime environment for the code. You could use Notepad to write your applications, but tools such as Visual Studio .NET help you create distributed applications very quickly.

2. Should I write all my code in C# because it runs more efficiently than Visual Basic .NET or COBOL .NET?

   Each .NET compiler produces the MSIL that the common language runtime converts to machine-specific code at runtime. Although one compiler might produce more efficient MSIL, there's really no difference in the performance at runtime among C#, Visual Basic .NET, COBOL .NET, or any other .NET language.

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