What is .Net Framework ?

The .net framework is an environment built by Microsoft to develop and execute computer programs

which are written in .net supported programming languages (C#, C++, Visual Basic etc.) It does several things related to the execution of an application. It is responsible for allocating memory for data and instruction. It handles exceptions which occur during the run time of a program. .net framework initiates the execution of a program. After the execution it releases the memory resources which are no longer in use.

Here is the structure of the .net framework.

Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the component which is is responsible  for compilation, memory allocation and garbage collection (releasing the resources no longer in use). 

Base Class Library provides a collection of reusable classes which are used to build applications. These classes are organized into namespaces (Simply think of them as collection of related classes). These classes can be used with your own code to build applications which run on .net framework.

Common Language Specification (CLS) is used to ensure that the compiled code can inter-operate with the .net framework.

Next article will be about the C# language