The Common Type System

The Common Type System specifies the types supported by the CLR. The types specified by the CLR include

  • Classes— The definition of what will become an object; includes properties, methods, and events

  • Interfaces— The definition of the functionality a class can implement, but does not contain any implementation code

  • Value Types— User-defined data types that are passed by value

  • Delegates— Similar to function pointers in C++, delegates are often used for event handling and callbacks

The type system sets out the rules that language compilers must follow to produce code that is cross-language–compatible. By following the type system, vendors can produce code that is guaranteed to work with code from other languages and other compilers ...

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