The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 beta redistributable package is the most recent update and includes everything you need to run applications developed using the .NET Framework.
.NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package Beta 1
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Some of us had no idea CLR was going to replace COM. We all wanted COM to die a horrible death and now you’ve ruined the surprise. On top of that, you give away the fact that .NET 2.0 is the first of a series. I suspect we won’t get a real ending, but a cliffhanger that guarantees we show up for the sequel.
Before the usual anti-MS flames commence, I just want to say that .NET is really the best product that MS has produced in a very long time. I am very excited about this new edition.
And when I say .NET I am referring to both the object library and the .NET server.
I’m sure many of you would rather be on a UNIX based platform, but like many of you due to my job I am forced to deal with a Windows Server environment if I like it or not, and as much as I have tried to hate it, I have actually been quite impressed with what you can do with Visual Studio and .NET
When you write a .NET web application you use the same code (meaning VB.NET, C# etc, as opposed to ASP, or VB Script) that you would use when writing a desktop app, and the fist time the page is accessed, the web server compiles all the code into dll’s on the fly. Converting my existing ASP apps into .NET has tripled the performance using the same hardware. This method is very very fast. Fast to develop and fast to benchmark. It would take me months to write a C/C++ cgi app to do the same thing that I can pump out in an afternoon with VB.NET. And more intuitive I might add.
I also like .NET, it is the first good thing they have put in a while, it beats the hell out of COM…
but your statement is not quite correct, unless I am not fully informed which is definately a possibility…. I have been finding more and more differences between programming for .aspx versus a standard desktop application… Still it beats the heck out of VS6…
I have been finding more and more differences between programming for .aspx versus a standard desktop application.
You should have troubles just on the tip of the iceberg, i.e. the GUI layer, right? From that layer down it’s all the same type of code, so I can’t see why so much trouble.
I have been finding more and more differences between programming for .aspx versus a standard desktop application.
You should have troubles just on the tip of the iceberg, i.e. the GUI layer, right? From that layer down it’s all the same type of code, so I can’t see why so much trouble.
What is new in .net 2?
What’s new? Just off the top of my head…
There’s everyone’s favorite catch-phrase: Generics. Everything is getting generics: Visual Basic.NET, C#, C++/CLI. Even J#, from what I’ve heard.
Love it or hate it, it’s coming in 2.0. Or you can just install Mono (http://www.go-mono.com) and the mono-preview package to try out C# generics now. 🙂
Also coming is new/improved class libraries: better XML support (XQUERY), ObjectSpaces (for the DB), ASP.NET 2.0 (master pages, etc.), VB.NET gets a “My” namespace to simplify the class libraries, etc., etc.
Finally, there are the Visual Studio enhancements: Code Refactoring finally makes an appearance, Visual Basic finally gets Edit-and-Continue support (missing since VB6), so all the VB programmers can stop complaining about that. 😉
MSDN and MSDN Magazine frequently have articles detailing what’s new. See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/.
You forgot LAMBDA
C# 2.0 will have anonymous methods and closures, which gives you a significant leap in expressive power over C++ and Java. Quick explanation:
anonymous methods (a.k.a lambda ) are small, anonymous function defined at call site. Before, when you passed, say, a delegate to another piece of code, you had to make it a full function. For simple one-line delegate, this would be a PITA. Anonymous methods let you define this in-line.
closures are based on lambdas. Lambdas can use the local variables from the method in which it is defined. When it does this, we say it has “closed over” those variables. When you close over a variable in an anonymous method, the C# compiler will package the variable(s) and the method together in a closure, and they’ll be treated as one object. Whenever you call that delegate again, it’ll still have access to those variables, even if the original parent function had long-since returned.
Anonymous methods and closures are a major step towards breaking the barrier between language implementor and language user. Take iteration, for example. Currently, in Java and C#, you use Iterator’s or foreach to do all iteration. Why? Because that’s all the language implementors gave you. When you have the power of closures, however, you can implement any iteration construct you want. Even have multiple constructs (eg: multiple ways through a tree) if that suit’s you.
That’s some seriously cool stuff. Perhaps now C# is finally catching up with Ruby and Python, and mainstream programming is finally catching up to where LISP was 50 years ago.
i’m a unix fan, but i must say that .NET is the best thing to come out of redmond for probably the past 20 years
let’s just hope this is the beginning of a better microsoft, monopoly or not
eric is right.
his posts are dying for your sins, lapdogs.
who’s eric?
I prefer VB .NET but why do I always have wait a version longer until VB .NET get’s a feature that C# had a version before. I would have usage for anonymous methods…