The Mission, Stardate Supplemental

The sting of my sound mental thrashing subsided after the time of my rejection by the Trigonometry Sensei had passed some distance into the past. My training under another Sensei (Master of the Art of Alternatives in Mathematica) was completed at only a mere 90%--not a good showing. But after the pain of my failure in the one discipline of Mathematica where I should have done much better, I comforted myself that construction on the space dirigible was still progressing well. The command bridge was completed and new Analytic Engines were configured and installed; the astronomical and aethereal calculations would begin for the mission.

My new training at the Sister’s Temple of Takoemeq began under a new Sensei, the Sensei of Electronischen and Netwerken Science. This Sensei was familiar to me and had begun my training when I still aspired to the Temple of Wireless.

One unfortunate aspect of this Department at the Sister’s Temple was that it had a very close relationship to the Mage of Redmond. The Mage of Redmond espoused the belief in and loyalty to the Emperor's Temple of the Closed Difference Engine. This dangerous conceptual view of the right use of the Difference Engine was espoused by all the Tyrants of the various Technocracies and Empires of the Stellar Federation. The view included going beyond the normal protections desired by most of the technical guilds to the desire to control all intellectual property. Unfortunately the economic influence of the Mage of Redmond had compromised many tech-temple leaders who were desirous of funding for their departments. The Mage’s influence had extended to my overlord, Posav Maantenon, and we are forced to learn the convoluted mysteries of the “tiny-flaccid” universe. So my training in the Servo-Analytic Engines of Redmond has begun and sometimes it can wear a pilgrim down, but if I persist through the 2,197 levels of Secrets of the Dark Mage I will then have enough experience points to break away from the evil and return to my own domain and fortify it against the evil.


Here following is step number two of the 2,197 to achieve knowledge of the Dark Mage:

What About .NET and WinFX?

The .NET Framework consists of a library of classes called the Framework Class Library (FCL) and a Common Language Runtime (CLR) that provides a managed code execution environment with features such as just-in-time compilation, type verification, garbage collection, and code access security. By offering these features, the CLR provides a development environment that improves programmer productivity and reduces common programming errors. (For an excellent description of the .NET Framework and its core architecture, see Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming by Jeffrey Richter.)

The CLR is implemented as a classic COM server whose code resides in a standard usermode Windows DLL. In fact, all components of the .NET Framework are implemented as standard user-mode Windows DLLs layered over unmanaged Windows API functions. (None of the .NET Framework runs in kernel mode.) Figure 1-1 illustrates the relationship of these components:


Figure 1-1. Relationship of .NET Framework components



WinFX is "the new Windows API." It is the evolution of the .NET Framework that ships with Windows "Longhorn," the next major release of Windows. It will also be installable on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. WinFX provides the foundation for the next generation of applications built for the Windows operating system.