4 Reusable Components and the FCL

4 Reusable Components and the FCL

Up to this point I have spoken quite a bit about the goals of the .NET Framework, as well as what it means to write managed code and what the CLR does for your software. The Common Language Runtime is the foundation for everything managed, and as such is a very important piece of the .NET puzzle. But in your day to day programming you will spend much more energy discovering, utilizing, and extending the reusable components found in the Framework Class Library.

The Framework Class Library or FCL nothing short of a massive collection of classes, structures, enumerated types and interfaces defined and implemented for reuse in your managed software. The classes in the FCL are here to facilitate everything from file IO and data structure manipulation to manipulating windows and other GUI elements. The FCL also has advanced classes for creating web and distributed applications.

Before diving headlong into the FCL, I would like to take a little time to address code reuse in general.