Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Check it out! Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 focuses on the core pillars of developer experience, support for the latest platforms, targeted experiences for specific application types, and core architecture improvements.
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software component which can be added to the Microsoft Windows operating system. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common program requirements, and manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. The .NET Framework is a key Microsoft offering, and is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform.
The pre-coded solutions in the namespaces form the framework's class library and cover a large range of programming needs in areas including the user interface, data access, cryptography, web application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. The functions of the class library are used by programmers who combine them with their own code to produce applications.
Programs written for the .NET Framework execute in a software environment that manages the program's runtime requirements. This runtime environment, which is also a part of the .NET Framework, is known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR provides the appearance of an application virtual machine, so that programmers need not consider the capabilities of the specific CPU that will execute the program. The CLR also provides other important services such as security mechanisms, memory management, and exception handling. The class library and the CLR together compose the .NET Framework. The framework is intended to make it easier to develop computer applications and to reduce the vulnerability of applications and computers to security threats.
The Microsoft .NET Framework 4 provides the following new features and improvements:* The .NET Framework 4 works side by side with the Framework version 3.5 SP1. Applications that are based on earlier versions of the Framework will continue to run on that version. Just a subset of functionality is shared by all versions of the Framework.
* Innovations in the Visual Basic and C# languages, for example statement lambdas, implicit line continuations, dynamic dispatch, and named/optional parameters.
* The ADO.NET Entity Framework, which simplifies how developers program against relational databases by raising the level of abstraction, has many new features. These includes persistence ignorance and POCO support, lazy loading, test-driven development support, functions in model, and new LINQ operators.
* Enhancements to ASP.NET:
o New JavaScript UI Templates and databinding capabilities for AJAX.
o New ASP.NET chart control.
* Improvements in WPF:
o Added support in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for Windows 7 multi-touch, ribbon controls, and taskbar extensibility features.
o Added support in WPF for Surface 2.0 SDK.
o New line-of-business controls including charting control, smart edit, data grid, and others that improve the experience for developers who build data centric applications.
o Improvements in performance and scalability.
o Visual improvements in text clarity, layout pixel snapping, localization, and interoperability.
* Improvements to Windows Workflow (WF) that let developers to better host and interact with workflows. These include an improved activity programming model, an improved designer experience, a new flowchart modeling style, an expanded activity palette, workflow-rules integration, and new message correlation features. The .NET Framework also offers significant performance gains for WF-based workflows.
* Improvements to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) such as support for WCF Workflow Services enabling workflow programs with messaging activities, correlation support, durable two-way communication and rich hosting capabilities. Additionally, .NET Framework 4 provides new WCF features such as service discovery, router service, simplified configuration and a number of improvements to queuing, REST support, diagnostics, and performance.
* Innovative new parallel programming features such as parallel loop support, Task Parallel Library (TPL), Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), and coordination data structures which let developers harness the power of multi-core processors.
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