What is Dot net Framework ?

DOT NET is an integral part of many applications running on Windows and provides common functionality for those applications to run.The DOT NET Framework  is a software framework developed by Microsoft. DOT NET is a general-purpose software development platform, similar to Java. The Microsoft .NET Framework is   available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems.It includes a large library of pre-coded solutions to common programming problems, a runtime or virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework, and a set of tools for configuring and building applications. The .NET Framework is a key Microsoft offering and is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform.At its core is a virtual machine that turns intermediate language (IL) into machine code. High-level language compilers for C#, VB.NET and C++ are provided to turn source code into IL. C# is a new programming language, very similar to Java. An extensive class library is included, featuring all the functionality one might expect from a contempory development platform - windows GUI development (Windows Forms), database access (ADO.NET), web development (ASP.NET), web services, XML etc.