2. Developing in .

NET and C#
 Objectives

“Microsoft .NET development is based on an underlying framework of

tools and classes. These tools and classes are known as the
Framework SDK (Software Development Kit).”

• .NET development options

• Brief summary of C#
• Class-based development
• Component-based development

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 Part 1

• .NET development options…

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 Recall assemblies

• 1 assembly = 1 or more compiled classes

– .EXE represents an assembly with classes + Main program
– .DLL represents an assembly with classes

code.vb
code.vb
code.cs

Development Tools

.EXE / .DLL
assembly

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 .NET development

• There are currently 3 ways to develop assemblies:

1) .NET Framework SDK

• free (100 MB)
• complete set of command-line tools and docs
• available for Windows NT, 2000, XP Pro, 2003
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/net

• other platforms?
– FreeBSD / Mac OS X via Rotor (i.e. SSCLI)
– Linux via Mono project

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 Development options, cont'd

2) Visual Studio .NET

• 5-6 CDs, 192 MB RAM (bare minimum)
• powerful, integrated development environment (IDE)
• one IDE for all: GUI, web-based, web service, DLLs, etc.
• this is what 99% of the world uses
• $$
– MSDNAA reduces cost to $800/year for unlimited access

3) free IDEs
• #develop, a simplified clone of VS.NET
• WebMatrix, for building web-based applications

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 Hello World in C#

• Here's the source code:

/* hello.cs */

public class Startup

{

public static void Main()

{
System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
}

}//class
hello.cs

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 Why System.Console prefix?

• In .NET, all code & data must live within a module / class
• Often nested within namespaces to help organize things
– a namespace is really just a named collection

• Example:

System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

System
namespac
e
in FCL
Consol
e
class

WriteLine
subroutin
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 Compiling and running

• To compile C# with Framework SDK, use the C# compiler

– open Visual Studio .NET command prompt window to set path
– csc is the command-line C# compiler
– use /t:exe option to specify console-based EXE as target

c:\> csc /t:exe hello.cs

Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

c:\> hello.exe
Hello World!

• To run, simply use name of assembly…

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 Viewing an assembly with ILDasm

• IL = Microsoft's Intermediate Language (i.e. generic asm)

• ILDasm = IL Disassembler

c:\> ildasm hello.exe

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 IL?

• Very similar to Java bytecodes:

– generic assembly language
– stack-based
– strictly typed
– no direct memory addressing
– verifiable for safe execution

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 Part 2

• Development on FreeBSD…

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 Development on FreeBSD

• Working on FreeBSD is exactly the same!

– i.e. same command-line tools as Framework SDK
– produces *binary-compatible* .DLL and .EXE files!

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 Part 3

• Brief summary of C#...

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 C#

• Case-sensitive
• Strict type-checking
• Operator and method overloading
• Single public inheritance; any number of interfaces
• All classes inherit from object; classes may be nested
• Garbage-collected

• Multiple classes may exist in one file

• Multiple files may be compiled into one assembly
• Each assembly typically written in one language

• When in doubt, think Java!

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 Part 4

• Class-based development…

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 A customer class

• Here's the source code for a simple Customer class:

/* customer.cs */

public class Customer

{
public string Name; // fields
public int ID;

public Customer(string name, int id) // constructor

{
this.Name = name;
this.ID = id;
}

public override string ToString() // method

{
return "Customer: " + this.Name;
}
}//class
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 Main class

• Here's the source code for Main, using our Customer class:

/* main.cs */

public class App

{

public static void Main()

{
Customer c;
c = new Customer("joe hummel", 94652);
System.Console.WriteLine( c.ToString() );
}

}//class

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 Compiling and running application

• Compile and run as before…

– /out: option specifies name of resulting EXE
– in this case we are building monolithic app (single EXE, no DLLs)

c:\> csc /t:exe /out:app.exe main.cs customer.cs

Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

c:\> app.exe
Customer: joe hummel

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 Part 5

• Component-based development…

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 Example

• Let's rebuild previous app based on components

– Customer class ==> DLL
– Main class ==> EXE

main.cs customer.cs

app.exe + customer.dll

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 Compiling a component

• Use the C# compiler…

– with /t:library option to specify component library as target
– csc produces a DLL in this case

c:\> csc /t:library customer.cs

Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

c:\> dir *.dll

customer.dll

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 Compiling and running application

• Compile using C# compiler as before, except…

– reference component so compiler can locate Customer class!
– reference also stored inside assembly so CLR can locate

c:\> csc /t:exe /out:app.exe main.cs /r:customer.dll

Microsoft (R) Visual C# .NET Compiler version 7.00.9466
for Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 1.0.3705
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2001. All rights reserved.

c:\> app.exe
Customer: joe hummel

• To run, use name of assembly containing Main…

– CLR follows reference to locate DLL

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 Where are references stored?

• Within assembly as part of assembly manifest

• Visible via ILDasm

c:\> ildasm app.exe

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 mscorlib?

• mscorlib = "ms-core-lib"
• Core FCL assembly
– contains core system classes like string
– contains System.Console class for console-based I/O

• Automatically referenced for us by C# compiler…

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 Recall CLR-based execution
• All assemblies must be present:

.DLL
.EXE .DLL
.DLL

OS Process

other FCL
JIT Compiler
assemblies

obj code Core FCL

obj code
obj code assembly
obj code

CLR

Underlying OS and HW
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 Summary

• .NET is multi-language
– Framework SDK based on C# and VB.NET
– lots of other languages available

• .NET development is component-based

– helper classes implemented in one or more DLLs
– EXE implemented using helper classes
– if (assembly A uses a class from assembly B)
then A must reference B!

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 References

• Books:
– J. Richter, "Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming"

• Web sites:
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/net
– MSDNAA: http://www.msdnaa.net/
– Rotor (SSCLI): http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/sscli
– Mono: http://www.go-mono.com/
– Free IDEs:
• http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/default.asp
• http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/
– Anakrino reverse-engineering tool:
• http://www.saurik.com/net/exemplar/

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 Lab?

• Work on lab #1, "Architecture"…

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