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Common Language Runtime



 
 
The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is a core component of Microsoft's
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 .NET
.NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework....
 initiative. It is Microsoft's implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure
Common Language Infrastructure

The Common Language Infrastructure is an open specification developed by Microsoft that describes the executable code and runtime environment that form the core of a number of runtimes including the .NET Framework, Mono , and Portable.NET....
 (CLI) standard, which defines an execution environment for program code. The CLR runs a form of bytecode
Bytecode

Bytecode is a term which has been used to denote various forms of instruction sets designed for efficient execution by a software Interpreter as well as being suitable for further compilation into machine language....
 called the Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language

Common Intermediate Language is the lowest-level human-readable programming language in the Common Language Infrastructure and in the .NET Framework....
 (CIL, previously known as MSIL -- Microsoft Intermediate Language).

Developers using the CLR write code in a language such as C# or VB.NET
Visual Basic .NET

Visual Basic , formerly called Visual Basic .NET , is an object-oriented programming computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft Visual Basic implemented on the .NET Framework....
. At compile time
Compile time

In computer science, compile time refers to either the operations performed by a compiler , programming language requirements that must be met by source code for it to be successfully compiled , or properties of the program that can be reasoned about at compile time....
, a .NET compiler converts such code into CIL code.






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The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is a core component of Microsoft's
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 .NET
.NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework....
 initiative. It is Microsoft's implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure
Common Language Infrastructure

The Common Language Infrastructure is an open specification developed by Microsoft that describes the executable code and runtime environment that form the core of a number of runtimes including the .NET Framework, Mono , and Portable.NET....
 (CLI) standard, which defines an execution environment for program code. The CLR runs a form of bytecode
Bytecode

Bytecode is a term which has been used to denote various forms of instruction sets designed for efficient execution by a software Interpreter as well as being suitable for further compilation into machine language....
 called the Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language

Common Intermediate Language is the lowest-level human-readable programming language in the Common Language Infrastructure and in the .NET Framework....
 (CIL, previously known as MSIL -- Microsoft Intermediate Language).

Developers using the CLR write code in a language such as C# or VB.NET
Visual Basic .NET

Visual Basic , formerly called Visual Basic .NET , is an object-oriented programming computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft Visual Basic implemented on the .NET Framework....
. At compile time
Compile time

In computer science, compile time refers to either the operations performed by a compiler , programming language requirements that must be met by source code for it to be successfully compiled , or properties of the program that can be reasoned about at compile time....
, a .NET compiler converts such code into CIL code. At runtime
Runtime

In computer science, runtime or run time describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination ....
, the CLR's just-in-time compiler
Just-in-time compilation

In computing, just-in-time compilation , also known as dynamic translation, is a technique for improving the runtime performance of a computer program....
 converts the CIL code into code native to the operating system. Alternatively, the CIL code can be compiled to native code in a separate step prior to runtime. This speeds up all later runs of the software as the CIL-to-native compilation is no longer necessary.

Although some other implementations of the Common Language Infrastructure
Common Language Infrastructure

The Common Language Infrastructure is an open specification developed by Microsoft that describes the executable code and runtime environment that form the core of a number of runtimes including the .NET Framework, Mono , and Portable.NET....
 run on non-Windows operating systems, Microsoft's implementation runs only on Microsoft Windows operating systems.

The CLR allows programmers to ignore many details of the specific CPU that will execute the program. It also provides other important services, including the following:
  • Memory management
    Memory management

    Memory management is the act of managing computer memory. In its simpler forms, this involves providing ways to allocate portions of memory to programs at their request, and freeing it for reuse when no longer needed....
  • Thread management
    Thread (computer science)

    In computer science, a thread of execution is a Fork of a computer program into two or more Concurrency running task s. The implementation of threads and process es differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process....
  • Exception handling
    Exception handling

    Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of exceptions - special conditions that change the normal flow of execution....
  • Garbage collection
    Garbage collection (computer science)

    In computer science, garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector, or just collector, attempts to reclaim garbage , or memory used by Object that will never be accessed or mutated again by the Application software....
  • Security
    Computer security

    Computer security is a branch of technology known as information security as applied to computers. The objective of computer security can include protection of information from theft or corruption, or the preservation of availability, as defined in the security policy....


See also

  • Metadata
  • Common Type System
    Common Type System

    The Common Type System is a standard that specifies how Type definitions and specific values of Types are represented in computer memory. It is intended to allow programs written in different programming languages to easily share information....
  • C++/CLI
    C++/CLI

    C++/CLI is Microsoft's language specification intended to supersede Managed Extensions for C++. Completely revised to simplify the older Managed C++ syntax , it provides much more clarity and code readability than Managed C++....
  • POCO
    Poco

    Poco is an United States country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968....
  • Managed code
    Managed code

    Managed code is Source code that executes under the management of a virtual machine, unlike unmanaged code, which is executed directly by the computer's Central processing unit....
  • Virtual machine
    Virtual machine

    In computer science, a virtual machine is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs like a real machine.Definitions...


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