Chapter 2. The Common Language Runtime

The most important component of the .NET Framework is the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR manages and executes code written in .NET languages and is the basis of the .NET architecture, similar to the Java Virtual Machine. The CLR activates objects, performs security checks on them, lays them out in memory, executes them, and garbage-collects them.

In this chapter, we describe the CLR environment, executables (with examples in several languages), metadata, assemblies, manifests, the CTS, and the CLS.