Appendix B. Common Acronyms

.ASMX

File extension for web services source-code files.

.ASPX

File extension for ASP.NET source-code files.

.config

File extension of .NET application configuration files.

ADO

ActiveX Data Objects.

ADO.NET

With goals similar to ADO, ADO.NET is the way to access data sources in .NET.

API

Application Programming Interface.

AppDomain

Short term to mean an application domain.

ASP

Active Server Pages.

ASP.NET

With goals similar to ASP, ASP.NET is the technology that supports the rapid development of Web Forms.

ATL

Active Template Library.

BLOB

Binary Large Object.

CAB Files

Cabinet files.

CCW

COM Callable Wrapper.

CLI

Common Language Infrastructure. This is the specification of the infrastructure and base-class libraries that Microsoft has submitted to ECMA so that a third-party vendor can build a .NET runtime on another platform. The CLR is Microsoft's implementation of the CLI.

CLR

Common Language Runtime.

CLS

Common Language Specification.

CLSID

Class identifier used in COM.

COFF

Common Object File Format.

COM

Component Object Model.

COM Interop

Short for COM interoperation.

COM+ 2.0

This term is no longer used as of Beta 1 of the .NET SDK. The new, accepted term is .NET Framework.

COM+ Runtime

This term is no longer used as of Beta 1 of the .NET SDK. The new, accepted term is Common Language Runtime.

CTS

Common Type System.

DB

Database.

DCOM

Distributed Component Object Model.

DHTML

Dynamic HyperText Markup Language.

DISCO

Discovery of web services. A Web Service has one or more .DISCO files that contain information on how to access its WSDL.

DISPID

Dispatch identifier. Used in COM to identify a method or a property for dynamic invocation.

DLL

Dynamically Linked Library.

DNA

Distributed interNet Applications Architecture.

DOM

Document Object Model.

DTD

Data Type Document. This has been superceded by XSD.

EXE

Executable.

GC

Garbage Collector.

GDI

Graphical Device Interface.

GDI+

A .NET library that supports advanced graphics management.

Global.asax

The global configuration file for an ASP.NET application.

GUID

Globally Unique Identifier.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol.

IDE

Integrated Development Environment.

IDL

Interface Definition Language.

IE

Internet Explorer.

IID

Interface Identifier.

IIS

Internet Information Server.

IJW

It Just Works.

IL

Intermediate Language.

ILDASM

Intermediate Language Disassembler.

Inproc

In-Process.

ISAPI

Information Server Application Programming Interface.

Machine.config

Configuration file for administrative policy for an entire machine.

MBR

Marshal-By-Reference.

MBV

Marshal-By-Value.

MFC

Microsoft Foundation Classes.

MSI

Microsoft Windows Installer Package.

MSIL

Microsoft Intermediate Language.

MSVCRT

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime.

MSXML

Microsoft eXtensible Markup Language.

MTS

Microsoft Transaction Server.

NGWS

Stands for Next Generation Windows Services, the original name for .NET before it was previewed at PDC 2000 in Orlando, Florida. This term is no longer used.

NTFS

NT File System.

N-Tier

Multi-tier.

NTLM

NT Lan Manager.

OBJREF

Object Reference.

Out of proc

Out-of-process.

P/Invoke

Platform Invoke.

PE

Portable Executable.

perm

Permissions.

RAD

Rapid Application Development.

RCW

Runtime Callable Wrapper.

REGASM

Register Assembly tool.

RPC

Remote Procedure Call.

SCL

SOAP Contract Language.

SDK

Software Development Kit.

SEH

Structured Exception Handling.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol.

SQL

Structured Query Language.

STL

Standard Template Library.

TCP

Transport Control Protocol.

TLB

Type Library.

TLBEXP

Type Library Exporter Tool.

TLBIMP

Type Library Importer Tool.

UDDI

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration Service. UDDI is a platform-independent framework for describing and discovering web services.

UDF

Uniform Data Format.

UI

User Interface.

URI

Uniform Resource Identifier.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator.

URT

Universal Runtime. This term is no longer used as of Beta 1 of the .NET SDK. The new, accepted term is the .NET Framework.

VB

Visual Basic.

VBRUN

Visual Basic Runtime.

VES

Virtual Execution System. The VES is a subset of the CLR. The VES doesn't include features such as debugging, profile, and COM interoperation.

VOS

Virtual Object System. This is now called the CTS.

VS.NET

Visual Studio .NET.

WAP

Wireless Application Protocol.

web.config

Configuration file for ASP.NET. You define HTTP modules, handlers, session state management, and other ASP.NET configurable parameters in this file.

WebForms

This term is no longer used as of Beta 1 of the .NET SDK. The new and accepted term is Web Forms (with a space).

WebServices

This term is no longer used as of Beta 1 of the .NET SDK. The new, accepted term is web services (with a space).

Win32

Windows 32-bit.

WinForms

This term is no longer used as of Beta 1 of the .NET SDK.

WML

Wireless Markup Language.

WSDL

Web Service Description Language. Think of this as IDL for web services. Unlike IDL, WSDL is expressed using only XML schemas. SDL is used in Beta1 of the .NET SDK, but WSDL replaced SDL in Beta 2 and later installments.

XML

Extensible Markup Language.

XPath

XML Path.

XSD

XML Schema Definition.

XSL

Extensible Stylesheet Language.

XSLT

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations.