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T H E   P H I L O S O P H Y   O F   . N E T

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Be aware that Partition IV (Libraries) defines only a minimal set of namespaces that represent

the core services expected by a CLI distribution (collections, console I/O, file I/O, threading, reflec-

tion, network access, core security needs, XML manipulation, and so forth). The CLI does 

not define

namespaces that facilitate web development (ASP.NET), database access (ADO.NET), or desktop

graphical user interface (GUI) application development (Windows Forms/Windows Presentation

Foundation). 

The good news, however, is that the mainstream .NET distributions extend the CLI libraries

with Microsoft-compatible equivalents of ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and Windows Forms in order to

provide full-featured, production-level development platforms. To date, there are two major imple-

mentations of the CLI (beyond Microsoft’s Windows-specific offering). Although this text focuses on

the creation of .NET applications using Microsoft’s .NET distribution, Table 1-5 provides informa-

tion regarding the Mono and Portable .NET projects.

Table 1-5.

Open Source .NET Distributions