3 Visual Studio .NET

3 Visual Studio .NET

This section is a short one, but I cannot go on without mentioning Visual Studio .NET. Visual Studio .NET is not part of the .NET Framework. However, it deserves mention in an introduction of the .NET Framework. Visual Studio is an integrated development environment published by Microsoft for writing Windows programs. Visual Studio .NET can also be used to write managed applications in C#, C++, Visual Basic and any other language (such as Perl) that is integrated into the environment by a third-party.

Visual Studio .NET itself is a partially managed application and requires the .NET Framework to run. Visual Studio .NET is a very user-friendly and productive environment in which to write managed applications. It includes many helpful wizards for creating code, as well as useful features such as context coloring, integrated online help, auto completion and edit-time error notification. But, you do not need Visual Studio .NET to execute or develop managed software.

I am not suggesting that you avoid Visual Studio .NET. It is a great product. In fact a large portion of a later tutorial in this series is devoted to teaching you to get the most out of Visual Studio as a C# programmer. But, it is important that you recognize Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework as different products.

The Framework is the infrastructure for managed code. The .NET Framework includes the CLR as well as other components that I will be discussing shortly. The .NET Framework also ships with an SDK (Software Developers Kit) that includes command line compilers for C#, C++, Visual Basic, and IL.

The bottom line is that the Framework is all you need to develop C# applications. That being said Visual Studio .NET can increase your enjoyment and productivity significantly.