[Tutor] Iron Python and Visual Basic 2005 Express

[Dick Moores]

At 03:03 PM 1/30/2008, Alan Gauld wrote:

>"Dick Moores" <rdm at rcblue.com> wrote
>
> >>But the whole idea of the intermediate code thing is
> >>that you can intermix languages.
> >
> > Alan, could you explain what you mean by "the intermediate code
> > thing"?
>
>.NET works like Java in that it doesn't compile into machine
>language object code directly but uses a framework called
>the Common Language Runtime(CLR)  and an underlying
>foundation known as the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)
>which in turn includes the Common Type System (CTS) and the
>Common Intermediate Language (CIL)  which all of the .NET family
>of languages must support.
>
>The CLR includes things like a common exception handling
>framework, comon object model and of course the common
>types (so an int looks the same in VB or C#) and intermediate
>language that is interpreted by the .NET environment. Exactly like a
>Java JIT compiler converts Java bytecode into machine code
>prior to execution.compiled Java bytecode. This is all hidden
>inside an exe file by providing a standard exe style header
>which Windows can use to determine the type of exe and
>for CLR files launch the .NET environment.
>
>For more detail see the MS .NET web pages and other .NET sites.
>
>I also recommend the O'Reilly ".NET Framework Essentials"
>book for an overview of how it all fits together.

Thanks very much, Alan. I think I'm in over my head here.

I'm somewhat surprised that what I asked about doing in my initial 
post doesn't seem to have been done yet..

Dick