The core aspects of the .NET framework lie within the Common Language Infrastructure, or CLI. The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) is an open specification developed by Microsoft that describes the executable code and runtime environment that form the core of a number of runtimes including the Microsoft .NET Framework, Mono, and Portable.NET.

The purpose of the CLI is to provide a language-agnostic platform for application development and execution, including functions for exception handling, garbage collection, security, and interoperability. The specification defines an environment that allows multiple high-level languages to be used on different computer platforms without being rewritten for specific architectures.

The CLI is a specification, not an implementation, and is often confused with the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which contains aspects outside the scope of the CLI specification.

Among other things CLI specification describes the following four aspects: the Common Type System or CTS, the Metadata, the Common Language Specification, and the Virtual Execution System.

The Common Type System (CTS) is a standard that specifies how Type definitions and specific values of Types are represented in computer memory. It is intended to allow programs written in different programming languages to easily share information.

There are 4 specific functions that can be found within the Common Type System, it is to establish a framework that helps enable cross-language integration, type safety, and high performance code execution; to provide an object-oriented model that supports the complete implementation of many programming languages; to define rules that languages must follow, which helps ensure that objects written in different languages can interact with each other; and the CTS also defines the rules that ensures that the data types of objects written in various languages are able to interact with each other. Learn more of CTS with the houston .net consultant.

Metadata describes all classes and class members that are defined in the assembly, and the classes and class members that the current assembly will call from another assembly. The metadata for a method contains the complete description of the method, including the class, the return type and all of the method parameters. Learn more about metadata with the houston .net consultant.

The Common Language Specification is a set of base rules to which any language targeting the CLI should conform in order to interoperate with other CLS-compliant languages. The CLS rules define a subset of the Common Type System. Learn more about common language specification with the houston .net consultant.

The Virtual Execution System (VES) provides an environment for executing managed code. It provides direct support for a set of built-in data types, defines a hypothetical machine with an associated machine model and state, a set of control flow constructs, and an exception handling model. Visit the houston .net consultant for more information about the Common Language Infrastructure or CLI functions.