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A History of .NET Runtimes

mattwarren.org

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Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#3
post #2

Is the .Net environment in SQL Server since version 2005 considered a different runtime?

No, SQL Server just uses the normal .NET Framework to execute managed code which is also implied by the name of the feature, Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration. Well, maybe one could also read this as integrating - in the sense of implementing - a CLR into SQL Server.

Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#4
post #2

Is the .Net environment in SQL Server since version 2005 considered a different runtime?

From memory, I think the runtime is pretty standard, what you got was a more restrictive environment in which the CLR and Framework can run so you had less chance of clobbering data, hanging SQL processes and shooting yourself in the foot.....unless you really, really needed to.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/cl...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/cl...

Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#6
post #5

Does anyone remember Rotor ? That thing (codeveloped with Corel) was pretty interesting. Too bad about the look but don't touch license model.

Yes...and I also had Ted Neward's book "Shared Source CLI Essentials" to go along with it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shared-Source-Essentials-David-Stut...

The problem with Rotor was that they ripped out of all the good bits and replaced with not so good things, for example they replaced the garbage collector with a naive implementation.

That said I still learned quite a lot from studying and playing around with it way back then.

Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#7
I think the history of the internal politics at Microsoft in regards to .NET and also the external industry trends is fascinating.

The common thinking is that C# & .NET was a ripoff of Sun Java because of the "write once run anywhere" threat. That's sort of true but missing some nuance.

I'm not a MS insider but here's my understanding of what happened. We have to separate the C# language from the CLR runtime. In the 1990s, Microsoft was already researching how to enhance and extend the COM interoperability model. (Otherwise known as "how do we get multiple programming languages to talk to each other?")

Based on some old interviews with Don Box[1], instead of this work being productized and released as "COM+ version 3" or whatever, it morphed into the CLR. This was a natural evolution that would have happened even without Sun's JVM threat.

C# the language, on the other hand, was a more direct response to Java the language since Microsoft's J++ (Java clone) was abandoned because of Sun's lawsuit.

As for .NET, it's interesting that Microsoft always had this large internal group of programmers (mostly Windows kernel and Office teams) that didn't fully buy into the .NET vision. On the other hand, Bill Gates himself was a big believer in it. My pet theory is that since Bill Gates programmed in BASIC in the 1970s and not in low-level C/C++/assembly, he had a natural affinity for the vision of high-level C# & .NET being pervasive throughout Windows. Even with Bill's support, there was always an ongoing internal tension between the C++ vs the NET framework camps. (On a related note, it seems like Apple's internal programmers are more happily embracing Swift over Objective-C to a greater degree than Microsoft's internal adoption of C# over C++.)

Two major forces outside of Microsoft's control curtailed .NET's planned world dominance: (1) the rise of Javascript in the browser which negated .NET Silverlight, and also Java applets and Flash. (2) the rise of Apple iOS and Android.

.NET is still very popular but it definitely did not fulfill the more ambitious dreams that Bill Gates had for it.

(On a related note, I also wrote an old comment about the decline of .NET's WPF and its limited adoption: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14098832)

[1] Was MS Technical Fellow and author of 1998 COM book: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-COM-Don-Box/dp/0201634465

Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#8
post #7

I think the history of the internal politics at Microsoft in regards to .NET and also the external industry trends is fascinating. The common thinking is that C# & .NET was a ripoff of Sun Java because of the "write once run anywhere" threat. That's sort of true but missing some nuance. I'm not a MS insider but here's my understanding of what happened. We have to separate the C# language from the CLR runtime. In the…

Microsoft developed .NET (internal codename COOL) to get back at Sun for suing them over Java compliance. Microsoft wanted to do embrace-extend-extinguish with the Java runtime and Sun would have none of it, so Microsoft took their ball and were like "Fine! We'll develop our OWN managed runtime and it'll be more better-er than yours is! Neener neener!"

And Bill certainly did program in low level assembly. The last Microsoft code he wrote himself was in the ROM of the Tandy 100 portable computer.

Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#9
post #7

I think the history of the internal politics at Microsoft in regards to .NET and also the external industry trends is fascinating. The common thinking is that C# & .NET was a ripoff of Sun Java because of the "write once run anywhere" threat. That's sort of true but missing some nuance. I'm not a MS insider but here's my understanding of what happened. We have to separate the C# language from the CLR runtime. In the…

The whole Longhorn/Vista debacle, with .NET components being rewritten in COM for Vista, followed up by the increasing the COM usage in Windows 7 and then bringing up WinRT as .NET replacement under Synofsky's leadership is another example of those political internal wars.

Re: A History of .NET Runtimes

#10
post #8
post #7

I think the history of the internal politics at Microsoft in regards to .NET and also the external industry trends is fascinating. The common thinking is that C# & .NET was a ripoff of Sun Java because of the "write once run anywhere" threat. That's sort of true but missing some nuance. I'm not a MS insider but here's my understanding of what happened. We have to separate the C# language from the CLR runtime. In the…

Microsoft developed .NET (internal codename COOL) to get back at Sun for suing them over Java compliance. Microsoft wanted to do embrace-extend-extinguish with the Java runtime and Sun would have none of it, so Microsoft took their ball and were like "Fine! We'll develop our OWN managed runtime and it'll be more better-er than yours is! Neener neener!" And Bill certainly did program in low level assembly. The last Mi…

The Ext-VOS design document as provided by Don Syme, alongside other blog entries, tells another story.
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