Where Are We?
The CLR is an evolutionary step in component software. Like its predecessor, COM, the CLR supports the integration of components based on strongly typed contracts. Unlike COM, however, these contracts are based on logical structure and imply no underlying physical data representation. This virtualization gets us one step closer to the Holy Grail of purely semantic contracts. Component contracts are described by CLR metadata, an extensible, machine-readable interchange format that is ubiquitous in CLR-based programs and architectures.
Get Essential .NET, Volume 1: The Common Language Runtime now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
