The Common Language Runtime

One of the major components of the .NET Framework is the Common Language Runtime, or CLR. The CLR provides a number of benefits to the developer, such as exception handling, security, debugging, and versioning, and these benefits are available to any language built for the CLR. This means that the CLR can host a variety of languages, and can offer a common set of tools across those languages. Microsoft has made VB .NET, C++.NET, and C# “premier” languages for the CLR, which means that these three languages fully support the CLR. In addition, other vendors have signed up to provide implementations of other languages, such as Perl, Python, and even COBOL.

When a compiler compiles for the CLR, this code is said to be ...

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