18.2. The Role of the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR)
Now that you better understand what "dynamic data" is all about, let's learn how it is processed. With the release of .NET 4.0, the Common Language Runtime (CLR) has a complementary runtime environment named the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR). The concept of a 'dynamic runtime' is certainly not new. In fact, many programming languages such as Smalltalk, LISP, Ruby and Python have used them for years. In a nutshell, a dynamic runtime allows a dynamic language the ability to discover types completely at runtime with no compile time checks.
If you have a background in strongly typed languages (including C#, without dynamic types) the very notion of such a runtime may seem undesirable. After all, ...
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