Unified Class Library

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With the introduction of .NET, Microsoft redesigned the access to common system components and services such as XML web services, Enterprise Services, ADO.NET, and XML by creating a single object-oriented library. All the Microsoft Visual .NET languages (Visual Basic, C++, J#, C#, etc.) have access to this library. To make access to these objects available within the various languages, Microsoft provided infrastructure such as hierarchical namespaces, structures, types, and common objects like collections.

The following illustration highlights the design and intent of the unified class library; it is not definitive. For a complete discussion see Microsoft .NET Class Library. In essence, Microsoft has developed a rich class library with a public and a private aspect. Language neutrality is obtained by creating a functionally identical namespace A standard that lets you specify a unique label for the set of element names defined by a DTD or XSD. A document using that DTD or XSD can be included in any other document without causing a conflict between element names. The elements defined in a particular DTD are uniquely identified so that, for example, the parser can tell when an element <name> should be interpreted according to the particular DTD rather than using the definition for an element <name> in a different DTD. [1]

For each language group. With minimal training, programmers can use the unified class libraries from each Visual .NET language, making the reuse of the core functionality a reality. The unified class library is, in essence, a reasonable model on which other application libraries can be modeled.