Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries

Foreword

In the early days of development of the .NET Framework, before it was even called that, I spent countless hours with members of the development teams reviewing designs to ensure that the final result would be a coherent platform. I have always felt that a key characteristic of a framework must be consistency. Once you understand one piece of the framework, the other pieces should be immediately familiar.

As you might expect from a large team of smart people, we had many differences of opinion—there is nothing like coding conventions to spark lively and heated debates. However, in the name of consistency, we gradually worked out our differences and codified the result into a common set of guidelines that allow programmers to understand ...