>> As I understand it, it's sorta-kinda like the Java virtual machine + 
>> library assemblage, except explicitly designed to support multiple 
>> source-level languages instead of just one.
> 
> And do you know which source languages talk to it?

Off the top of my head... C#, F#, some Java derivative (J#?), and 
there's a variant of VB for it.

>> (It wasn't easy to find this information, mind you...)
> 
> "The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software technology that is available 
> with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large 
> library of pre-coded solutions to common programming problems and a 
> virtual machine that 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 that form the framework's Base Class Library 
> cover a large range of programming needs in a number of areas, including 
> user interface, data access, database connectivity, cryptography, web 
> application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. 
> The class library is used by programmers, who combine it 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. Also part 
> of the .NET Framework, this runtime environment 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, memory 
> management, and exception handling. The class library and the CLR 
> together compose the .NET Framework."

That seems slightly clearer than last time I looked. Last time I 
researched this matter, I found endless pages telling me how awesome 
.NET is and why I should immediately use it, but I couldn't find 
anything (from Microsoft or Wikipedia) that explains precisely what it *is*.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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