Microsoft Visual Studio

Software Design under Windows

While it may seem extravagant and tough, but designing software’s for Windows is much simpler than you think and there is no specified language for it as there are many languages with which you can code for Windows.

Microsoft has made the computer truly personal by itsWindows OS.
But now it also has something for you developers and it’s called The Microsoft .NET Framework.

The .NET Framework

The .NET Framework by Microsoft is a set of development tools which has made software design under Windows a stroll in the park.

This Framework sits between your application and Windows. It controls and coordinates the functioning of your app in the System. It provides an Object Oriented Environment for your Windows or even Web Applications.

For seasoned programmers, the .NET Framework is much more than XML Web services. It mainly consists of the Framework Class Library (FCL) and the Common Language Runtime (CLR).

Components of .NET Framework

At the very heart of the .NET Framework resides its 2 major components:

Framework Class Library (FCL)

Common Language Runtime

Framework Class Library

The FCL is a collection of ready-made classes that can be used for commonly needed programming tasks (but trust me it’s got almost everything!!!).

It includes:

Input Output Management

Graphics

Multimedia

Networking

Database Access

Mobile Computing

Remoting

Multi-Threading

Reflections

Windows and Web Control

And a lots more!!!!

Common Runtime Language

The CLR helps in the execution of the code. It is a very important part of the Framework which manages memory and security during runtime of your application.

It makes sure your software binds perfectly with the Operating System and establishes a smooth platform for executing your code.

.Net Supporting Languages

We can access the services of the .NET Framework with many languages. Some of them are:

Visual C++

Visual Basic

Visual C#

Visual F#

Visual J#

Jscript

Visual COBOL

You can get a list of all the supporting languages at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CLI_languages

Out of which Visual C#.NET is the official language of choice at Microsoft for its elegance and simplicity.

Most of us programmers know that before a code is executed it must be converted to Machine Code. Like Java is converted to Java Bytecode, similarly every language has its own native code. So how does a single .NET Framework compile so many different languages???Actually .NET supporting languages are not converted to Machine Code directly. It is done in the following manner:

As depicted, the used language is converted first to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) then to Native Code then finally to Machine Code. So the framework does not process all different languages, it only processes the MSIL to get the output.

Windows Software development tools

For building software’s in any language you need a Software Development Tools (aka Compiler or IDE). The IDE which is most popular among Windows software developers is the Microsoft Visual Studio. On November 11^th Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2013 which promises to be a worthy successor to Visual Studio 2012.

Here is a small glimpse at Studio 2012:

Visual Studio 2012 splash screen

Visual Studio 2012 home screen

The Visual Studio is the most popular IDE among all Windows developers. It also supports another superb feature known as the Intellisense. This feature helps us during coding time. Whenever you type something in the editor the Intellisense feature pops up with the most probable results (much like Google’s search bar). From here you can choose the required keyword or method that you need by double clicking on the result or simply by hitting the Enter key.

Here is a view of the Visual Studio Editor where a small snippet of a VB.NET code is depicted. You can clearly see that I intended to type “String” but soon as I got to “Str” a menu pops up with the most probable selection highlighted. This is the Visual Studio Intellisense features. So now you don’t have to type out huge chunks of code yourself, just type out a little bit and Studio will do the rest.

Conclusion

So guys that’s all for this article. I hope this was helpful. We shall discuss about using Visual Studio soon in the next article. So till then keep dreaming, keep programming. Chao!!!

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