Re: Reporting tools

Simon Verona wrote:
Dawn..

Ok.. some explanations...

.Net is a concept really...

The basis is the .Net framework, which is a library of functions and objects
that sits on top of windows. It encompasses most of the old Win32 c calls
plus lots of others.

On top of this is the CLR - which is the common language environment - you
might think this as similar to the java runtime environment.

This is the part I thought was called .NET.

The programming languages include c# and vb.net.

Yes, I'm with the program on this aspect of .NET.

These are both compiled to
psuedo code

like Java bytecode, yup

which is interpreted by the CLR and make numerous calls into the
.Net framework to do anything. These programming languages are all fully
object orientated. Programmers can pick pretty much any of them to do the
job - the language is largely unimportant as they mostly compile to the same
pseudo code. vb.net is "basic like" and c# is actually more like java
(curly braces and the like).

Yes, I've read some of the c# doc. It handles exceptions differently
than Java, but is otherwise pretty much a Java clone.


So far, I've only talked about the programming languages - I've not talked
about presentation or environment.

Currently, there are two main ways of writing .net applications ....

1. Windows Forms

This is the windows "thick" client application. It compiles to a win32
based executable that needs to run inside a windows environment. Therefore
will only run on a windows PC. The application does not necessary need
to be preinstalled on a pc as it can be installed on the client on a
just-in-time basis, much like java apps are distributed and run within a
browser.

"much like java apps are distribute and run within a browser" -- you
mean like Java web start where the jre and app are launched from the
browser, but don't actually run in the browser window?

2. Asp.Net

Asp - active server pages are asp pages on steroids. They use the full
windows framework to provide automatic stuff like session state handling,
persistence, database access etc. This can be very powerful. Runs within a
Windows based web server (IIS) with the .net framework installed. The
actual client can pretty much be any html4/css compliant browser.

If I understand correctly, this would be analogous to running tomcat on
a web server for a java servlet environment


Thats pretty much it.. in a nutshell.

What does it mean if a vendor makes their software available with a
..NET plug? Does that mean that it runs in a .NET thick client?

Obviously, I've oversimplified everything.. For example, .Net doesn't
actually need Windows to run. The framework standards and the standards for
coding in languages such as c# are independent standards. The Mono project
seeks to provide the .net framework running in Linux and is gaining more
success all the time. I believe it also supports asp.net in apache.

Sure, sure, but for all intents and purposes, it really is a Windows
solution with some people who have been working really hard for quite
some time to try to make it successful on linux with some
not-overwhelming successes, right?

Looking at the next version of sql server, this will have the ability to
write stored procedures using .net technology...

This is where my brain gets muddled. Does this mean that you can write
a stored procedure (or user-defined function?) for SQL Server using a
..NET language such as C# or does it mean that SQL Server will be
running in a .NET run-time environment so that stored procedures,
whatever the language, will be compiled to p-code/bytecode and
everthing will be running in .NET much like DataBASIC and I-descriptors
run in a PICK p-code environment? The second implies the first, so I
suspect it is yes to both of these?

It's easy to see where
microsoft is going with the technology.

Basically, dotnet is all about learning the basic technology once (the
dotnet framework

learning the framework means learning the library API's, perhaps?

plus one or more of the programming languages) and then
deploying this same skill set right through the enterprise - from database
through to browser...

Here is another place I'm lost. How do you deploy C#, for example,
straight through to a generic run-of-the-mill browser and get a rich UI
out of it? Don't you need ECMAScript (JScript/JavaScript)?

I like the concept and find it very powerful.

Apologies in advance for any mistakes I've made whilst trying to
oversimplify...

Oversimplification is appreciated.

Particularly, I apologise for using the wrong terminology to
describe things - but I hope that the overall meanings are clear.

Hope this helps!

Yes. Thanks a bunch, Simon. --dawn

.

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