The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)

C# is an object oriented programming language. It is essentially a standard defining what constitutes valid syntax. On its own C# is actually of little use because it is dependent upon something called the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) both for compilation and execution of applications. The CLI in turn, is actually a standard which defines specifications for the following components:

• Virtual Execution System (VES)

• Common Intermediate Language (CIL)

• Common Type System (CTS)

• Common Language Specification (CLS)

• Framework

In the remainder of this chapter we will look at each of these CLI components in order to build up a picture of how the CLI environment fits together.