The Common Language Runtime (CLR), the
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...
component of
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
.NET Framework, manages the execution of .NET programs.
Just-in-time compilation converts the
managed code (compiled
intermediate language code) into
machine instructions which are then executed on the
CPU of the computer.
The CLR provides additional services including
memory management
Memory management (also dynamic memory management, dynamic storage allocation, or dynamic memory allocation) is a form of Resource management (computing), resource management applied to computer memory. The essential requirement of memory manag ...
,
type safety
In computer science, type safety and type soundness are the extent to which a programming language discourages or prevents type errors. Type safety is sometimes alternatively considered to be a property of facilities of a computer language; that ...
,
exception handling
In computing and computer programming, exception handling is the process of responding to the occurrence of ''exceptions'' – anomalous or exceptional conditions requiring special processing – during the execution of a program. In general, an ...
,
garbage collection, security and
thread management. All programs written for the .NET Framework, regardless of
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs.
Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...
, are executed in the CLR. All versions of the .NET Framework include CLR. The CLR team was started June 13, 1998.
CLR implements the
Virtual Execution System (VES) as defined in the
Common Language Infrastructure
The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) is an open specification and technical standard originally developed by Microsoft and standardized by International Organization for Standardization, ISO/International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC (ISO/ ...
(CLI) standard, initially developed by Microsoft itself. A public standard defines the Common Language Infrastructure specification.
During the transition from legacy .NET technologies like the .NET Framework and its proprietary runtime to the community-developed
.NET Core, the CLR was dubbed CoreCLR. Today, it is simply called the .NET runtime. The new runtime for .NET Core follows
semantic versioning. A later runtime version is able to run programs built for an earlier runtime version of the same major version (e.g. 2.2 and 2.1 have the same major version).
See also
*
Common Intermediate Language
*
List of CLI languages
*
Java virtual machine
A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally descr ...
References
External links
Components of Common Language RuntimeComponents of CLROverview of the .NET Framework 4.0.NET Framework Conceptual Overview
{{Authority control
.NET Framework terminology
Stack-based virtual machines