Framework Class Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Framework Class Library (FCL) is a standard library available to all languages using the .NET Framework. The FCL is a collection of 2,500 reusable classes (within 242 namespaces), interfaces and value types.

Contents

[edit] Namespaces

System 
This namespace includes the core needs for programming. It includes base types like String, DateTime, Boolean, and so forth, support for environments such as the console, math functions, and base classes for attributes, exceptions, and arrays.
System.CodeDom 
This library provides the ability to create code and run it, at runtime.[1]
System.Collections 
Defines many common containers or collections used in programming, such as lists, queues, stacks, hashtables, and dictionaries. It includes support for generics.
System.ComponentModel 
Provides the ability to implement the run-time and design-time behavior of components and controls. It contains the infrastructure "for implementing attributes and type converters, binding to data sources, and licensing components".[2]
System.Configuration 
Provides the infrastructure for handling configuration data.
System.Data 
This namespace represents the ADO.NET architecture, which is set of computer software components that can be used by programmers to access data and data services.
System.Deployment 
Allows you to customize the way your application upgrades when using ClickOnce.
System.Diagnostics 
Gives you the ability to diagnose your application. It includes event logging, performance counters, tracing, and interaction with system processes.
System.DirectoryServices 
Provides easy access to Active Directory from managed code.
System.Drawing 
Provides access to GDI+ graphics functionality, including support for 2D and vector graphics, imaging, printing, and text services.
System.EnterpriseServices 
"Provides .NET objects with access to COM+ services making the .NET Framework objects more practical for enterprise applications."[3]
System.Globalization 
Provides help for writing internationalized applications. "Culture-related information, including the language, the country/region, the calendars in use, [and] the format patterns for dates, currency, and numbers" can be defined.[4]
System.IO 
Allows you to read from and write to different streams, such as files or other data streams. Also provides a connection to the file system.
System.Management 
Allows you to query for information, "such as how much free space is left on the disk, what is the current CPU utilization, which database a certain application is connected to, and much more."[5]
System.Media 
Provides you the ability to play system sounds and .wav files.
System.Messaging 
Allows you "to connect to, monitor, and administer message queues on the network and send, receive, or peek messages."[6] .NET Remoting is another name for some of the functionality provided. This namespace is being superseded by Windows Communication Foundation.
System.Net 
Provides an interface "for many of the protocols used on networks today",[7] such as HTTP, FTP, and SMTP. Secure communication is supported by protocols such as SSL.
System.Linq
Defines the IQueryable<T> interface and related methods, that lets LINQ providers to be plugged in.
System.Linq.Expressions
Allows Delegates and Lambda expressions to be represeted as expression trees, so that the high-level code can be examined and processed at runtime.
System.Reflection 
Provides an object view of types, methods, and fields. You have "the ability to dynamically create and invoke types".[8] It exposes the API to access the Reflective programming capabilities of CLR.
System.Resources 
Allows you to manage many different resources in the application in order to internationalize an application for different cultures and languages.
System.Runtime 
Allows you to manage the runtime behavior of an application or the CLR. Some of the included abilities are interoping with COM or other native code, writing distributed applications, and serializing objects into binary or SOAP.
System.Security 
"Provides the underlying structure of the common language runtime security system."[9] This namespace allows you to build security into your application based on policy and permissions. It provides services such as cryptography.
System.ServiceProcess 
Allows you to create applications that run as a service within Windows.
System.Text 
Supports various encodings, regular expressions, and a more efficient mechanism for manipulating strings (StringBuilder).
System.Threading 
Helps facilitate multithreaded programming. It allows the synchronizing of "thread activities and access to data" and provides "a pool of system-supplied threads".[10]
System.Timers 
"Allows you to raise an event on a specified interval."[11]
System.Transactions 
Provides support for local or distributed transactions.
System.Web 
Provides various web related functionality. It enables browser-server communication and the creating XML Web services. Most or all of these libraries are referred to as the ASP.NET architecture.
System.Windows.Forms 
This namespace contains the Windows Forms architecture which provides access to the older Windows API for writing graphical applications for Windows from within managed code. This system is being superseded by the Windows Presentation Foundation.
System.Xml 
"Provides standards-based support for processing XML",[12] including reading, writing, schemas, serialization, searching, and transforming.

[edit] See also

[edit] Other capabilities of the .NET framework

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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