Base Class Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Base Class Library (BCL) is a library of types and functionalities available to all languages using the .NET Framework. In order to make the programmer's job easier, .NET includes the BCL in order to encapsulate a large number of common functions, such as file reading and writing, graphic rendering, database interaction, and XML document manipulation. It is much larger in scope than standard libraries for most other languages, including C++, and would be comparable in scope to the standard libraries of Java. The BCL is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Framework Class Library (FCL), which is a superset including the Microsoft.* namespaces.

The BCL is updated with each version of the .NET Framework.

Contents 1 Namespaces 2 See Also 2.1 Other Capabilities of the .NET Framework 3 References 4 External Links

[edit] Namespaces

Some of these namespaces may or may not be officially considered part of the BCL by Microsoft, but all are included as part of the standard libraries that are provided with the .NET Framework.

System 

This namespace includes the core needs for programming. It includes base types like String, DateTime, Boolean, and so forth, support for environments such as the console, math functions, and base classes for attributes, exceptions, and arrays.

System.CodeDom 

This library provides the ability to create code and run it, at runtime.

System.Collections 

Defines many common containers or collections used in programming, such as lists, queues, stacks, hashtables, and dictionaries. It includes support for generics.

System.ComponentModel 

Provides the ability to implement the run-time and design-time behavior of components and controls. It contains the infrastructure "for implementing attributes and type converters, binding to data sources, and licensing components."^[1]

System.Configuration 

Provides the infrastructure for handling configuration data.

System.Data 

This namespace represents the ADO.NET architecture, which is set of computer software components that can be used by programmers to access data and data services.

System.Deployment 

Allows you to customize the way your application upgrades when using ClickOnce.

System.Diagnostics 

Gives you the ability to diagnose your application. It includes event logging, performance counters, tracing, and interaction with system processes.

System.DirectoryServices 

Provides easy access to Active Directory from managed code.

System.Drawing 

Provides access to GDI+ graphics functionality, including support for 2D and vector graphics, imaging, printing, and text services.

System.EnterpriseServices 

"Provides .NET objects with access to COM+ services making the .NET Framework objects more practical for enterprise applications."^[2]

System.Globalization 

Provides help for writing internationalized applications. "Culture-related information, including the language, the country/region, the calendars in use, [and] the format patterns for dates, currency, and numbers" can be defined.^[3]

System.IO 

Allows you to read from and write to different streams, such as files or other data streams. Also provides a connection to the file system.

System.Management 

Allows you to query for information, "such as how much free space is left on the disk, what is the current CPU utilization, which database a certain application is connected to, and much more."^[4]

System.Media 

Provides you the ability to play system sounds and .wav files.

System.Messaging 

Allows "you to connect to, monitor, and administer message queues on the network and send, receive, or peek messages."^[5] .NET Remoting is another name for some of the functionality provided. This namespace is being superseded by Windows Communication Foundation.

System.Net 

Provides an interface "for many of the protocols used on networks today,"^[6] such as HTTP, FTP, and SMTP. Secure communication is supported by protocols such as SSL.

System.Reflection 

Provides an object view of types, methods, and fields. You have "the ability to dynamically create and invoke types."^[7]

System.Resources 

Allows you to manage many different resources in the application in order to internationalize an application for different cultures and languages.

System.Runtime 

Allows you to manage the runtime behavior of an application or the CLR. Some of the included abilities are interoping with COM or other native code, writing distributed applications, and serializing objects into binary or SOAP.

System.Security 

"Provides the underlying structure of the common language runtime security system."^[8] This namespace allows you to build security into your application based on policy and permissions. It provides services such as cryptography.

System.ServiceProcess 

Allows you to create applications that run as a service within Windows.

System.Text 

Supports various encodings, regular expressions, and a more efficient mechanism for manipulating strings (StringBuilder).

System.Threading 

Helps facilitate multithreaded programming. It allows the synchronizing of "thread activities and access to data" and provides "a pool of system-supplied threads."^[9]

System.Timers 

"Allows you to raise an event on a specified interval."^[10]

System.Transactions 

Provides support for local or distributed transactions.

System.Web 

Provides various web related functionality. It enables browser-server communication and the creating XML Web Services. Most or all of these libraries are referred to as the ASP.NET architecture.

System.Windows.Forms 

This namespace contains the Windows Forms architecture which provides access to the older Windows API for writing graphical applications for Windows from within managed code. This system is being superseded by the Windows Presentation Foundation.

System.Xml 

"Provides standards-based support for processing XML,"^[11] including reading, writing, schemas, serialization, searching, and transforming.

[edit] See Also

• .NET Framework
• ADO.NET
• ASP.NET
• Windows Forms

[edit] Other Capabilities of the .NET Framework

• Windows Presentation Foundation
• Windows Communication Foundation
• Windows Workflow Foundation
• Windows CardSpace

[edit] References

1. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.ComponentModel Namespace
2. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.EnterpriseServices Namespace
3. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Globalization Namespace
4. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Management Namespace
5. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Messaging Namespace
6. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Net Namespace
7. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Reflection Namespace
8. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Security Namespace
9. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Threading Namespace
10. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Timers Namespace
11. ^ MSDN Documentation - System.Xml Namespace

[edit] External Links

• .NET Framework Developer Center. Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).
• Base Class Libraries Community. More information and FAQs about the BCL.
• MSDN BCL Documentation.
• BCLTeam's WebLog.