Windows.NET—what’s that?

Windows.NET will be the next server release from Microsoft. Here are a few features that are expected to debut in this OS:

* Larger memory support—memory block move and copy will improve performance.
* Application domain—applications are protected from each other.
* Common Language Runtime—will be bundled with the OS.
* IIS (Microsoft’s Web server software) moves into the kernel—this will improve performance but the chances of IIS bringing the server down will rise.

Why .NET?

Daniel Ingitaraj, senior marketing manager at Microsoft India says, “Class libraries are the same across languages. Earlier, ADO was always connected—it assumed the existence of a LAN. ADO.NET assumes a disconnected world (dial-up Internet).”

“Once you use pointers, you are out of .NET. C# marks pointer code as unsafe,” adds Ingitaraj. “ASP was traditionally easy to write but difficult to manage. There was no concept of reusing code, no Object-Oriented features, no caching. In ASP.NET there is a new file extension—.aspx. On the first run, the aspx is compiled and stored for future use—a DLL is created. If there is a change in the aspx source file, the CLR recompiles it,” says Ingitaraj.

Another advantage is that metadata regarding versioning, security and dependencies (a DLL may need other DLLs) is stored within the DLL/EXE. This makes managing software code easier and avoids the so-called ‘DLL hell’ where conflicting versions of the same DLL cause problems.

“From a developer’s perspective, in .NET there’s not much difference in writing for the Web or for Windows,” adds Ingitraj. The CLR can tailor the presentation of the application depending upon the target device—be it a PC, a PDA or a cellphone. 75 devices, including Palm PDAs, are supported.

Microsoft gives developers two options of creating applications on .NET—ASP.NET is for Web developers and WinForms for creating Windows UI-based executables.

“Applications developed using .NET are smaller and faster,” states Microsoft India’s evangelism director, Dilip Mistry. The advantages that a developer gains by using .NET are:

* Compiled code—Unlike ASP, Microsoft’s popular technology for creating dynamic websites, ASP.NET offers compiled code with the advantages of improved performance (compiled code is faster than interpreted code, plus compiled objects are cached in ASP.NET).
* Maintaining state across machines—Earlier only Java developers using J2EE could maintain state across servers. Today, .NET offers the same feature. This is important in a clustered environment.
* Support for more languages—Other than the Microsoft languages—VB, VC, C#, JScript—.NET has compilers for everything from Perl to COBOL.
* A better programming model—Earlier, in ASP, the HTML and code were mixed up making it very tough to modify or maintain Web applications. In ASP.NET the code is separated from the HTML.
* The new version of MTS (Microsoft Transaction Server) supports multiple nested levels of transaction capabilities—funds transfer; debit a/c first & then credit other a/c. There were limits in the older version of MTS. In .NET you can rollback or commit multiple transactions as a batch.

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