What's .NET?

.NET is both a business strategy from Microsoft and its collection of programming support for what are known as Web services, the ability to use the Web rather than your own computer for various services. Microsoft's goal is to provide individual and business users with a seamlessly interoperable and Web-enabled interface for applications and computing devices and to make computing activities increasingly Web browser-oriented. The .NET platform includes servers; building-block services, such as Web-based data storage; and device software. It also includes Passport, Microsoft's fill-in-the-form-only-once identity verification service.

The .NET platform is expected to provide:

* The ability to make the entire range of computing devices work together and to have user information automatically updated and synchronized on all of them

* Increased interactive capability for Web sites, enabled by greater use of XML (Extensible Markup Language) rather than HTML

* A premium online subscription service, that will feature customized access and delivery of products and services to the user from a central starting point for the management of various applications, such as e-mail, for example, or software, such as Office .NET

* Centralized data storage, which will increase efficiency and ease of access to information, as well as synchronization of information among users and devices

* The ability to integrate various communications media, such as e-mail, faxes, and telephones

* For developers, the ability to create reusable modules, which should increase productivity and reduce the number of programming errors

According to Bill Gates, Microsoft expects that .NET will have as significant an effect on the computing world as the introduction of Windows. One concern being voiced is that although .NET's services will be accessible through any browser, they are likely to function more fully on products designed to work with.NET code.

The full release of .NET is expected to take several years to complete, with intermittent releases of products such as a personal security service and new versions of Windows and Office that implement the .NET strategy coming on the market separately. Visual Studio .NET is a development environment that is now available. Windows XP supports certain .NET capabilities.

時(shí)文選讀

何謂 .NET?

.NET既是微軟公司的商業(yè)策略，也是對(duì)稱作為Web Services的編程支持的集合，所謂Web Services是利用Web而不是你自己的計(jì)算機(jī)進(jìn)行各種服務(wù)的能力。微軟的目標(biāo)是向個(gè)人和商業(yè)用戶提供用于應(yīng)用程序和計(jì)算設(shè)備的無縫互用和Web實(shí)現(xiàn)的界面，以及使計(jì)算活動(dòng)更多地面向Web瀏覽器。.NET平臺(tái)包括服務(wù)器和基本構(gòu)件服務(wù)(如基于Web的數(shù)據(jù)存儲(chǔ)和設(shè)備軟件)。它也包括了微軟的Passport一次性填表身份驗(yàn)證服務(wù)。

.NET平臺(tái)可望提供：

● 一種能力，使得所有的計(jì)算設(shè)備能在一起工作，并使用戶的信息自動(dòng)更新和在所有設(shè)備上實(shí)現(xiàn)同步。

● 增加網(wǎng)站的交互能力，這是通過更廣地使用XML(擴(kuò)展標(biāo)記語言)而不是HTML實(shí)現(xiàn)的。

● 額外的在線訂閱服務(wù)，其特點(diǎn)是通過管理各種應(yīng)用程序(如電子郵件或Office.NET軟件)的中央起始點(diǎn)給用戶定制訪問和產(chǎn)品與服務(wù)的定制交付。

● 集中的數(shù)據(jù)存儲(chǔ)，這將增加效率和方便信息的存取，以及信息在用戶和設(shè)備上的同步。

● 整合各種通信媒體(如電子郵件、傳真和電話)的能力。

● 對(duì)于開發(fā)者而言，生成可重復(fù)用模塊的能力，此能力將能提高生產(chǎn)率和減少編程錯(cuò)誤。

Bill Gates表示，微軟希望.NET的推出會(huì)像Windows那樣對(duì)計(jì)算世界產(chǎn)生重大的影響。但有一項(xiàng)關(guān)注已被提出，雖然通過任何瀏覽器可獲得.NET服務(wù)，但在那些設(shè)計(jì)與.NET程序一起工作的產(chǎn)品上，這些服務(wù)更可能得到充分的發(fā)揮。

.NET的全部推出可能要花幾年的時(shí)間，其間斷斷續(xù)續(xù)會(huì)有產(chǎn)品推出，如實(shí)施.NET策略的個(gè)人安全服務(wù)、Windows新版本，以及Office會(huì)陸續(xù)上市。提供開發(fā)環(huán)境的Visual Studio.NET現(xiàn)在已能買到，Windows XP也支持某些.NET的功能。