Visual C# .NET Dictionary - A

Abstract class

A class representing a base class which other types can subclass. A normal, non-abstract class is called a concrete class. An abstract class may contain either or both abstract and concrete methods. (Properties cannot be marked abstract.) As in ordinary inheritance, a type derived from an abstract class inherits all the base type members including any method implementations. But, if any abstract methods are inherited, the class must either declare itself abstract or provide an implementation.

A C# abstract class is declared with the abstract keyword.

Abstract IL

ILX is a toolkit for accessing the contents of .NET Common IL binaries. Features include transforming binaries into structured abstract syntax trees to be manipulated.

Access control list

ACL is a list denoting the access rules for a designated resource. Microsoft Windows NT implements user-based ACLs that specify any resources available to a certain user.

Access modifiers:

Language keywords for specifying the visibility of classes and members.

The C# access modifiers are internal, private, protected, protected internal, and public.

Acrylic

Code name for a graphics, illustration, and painting tool providing creative capabilities for working in interactive media, print, Web, and video design.

Active Directory

Active Directory is the primary Microsoft LDAP directory service product and a central component of the Windows platform. Active Directory directory service is the distributed directory service of the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating systems. Active Directory enables centralized, secure management of an entire network. Active Directory provides the facilities to manage identities and relationships comprising network environments.

Active Directory/Application Mode

ADAM provides a stand-alone directory service without the network operating system functionality of Active Directory. Thus, it is simpler to use and deploy. By analogy, it is an empty database with an LDAP interface.

Active Directory Service Interfaces

ADSI abstracts the functionality of different directory services from various network vendors into a single set of directory service interfaces for managing network resources. Administrators and developers can use ADSI to manage the directory service resources regardless of where on the network the resource is located. ADSI enables administrators to automate frequent tasks such as managing printers, managing users and groups, and setting network resource permissions. ADSI offers developers access to multiple directory service providers through a set of open interfaces. Using ADSI, applications are written to work with any directory service that offers an ADSI provider—Active Directory, LDAP, NDS, etc. The .NET managed version of ADSI is System.DirectoryServices.

Agile software development

A collaborative, evolutionary, incremental, iterative approach to software development which is performed with minimal "ceremony". Agile development was invented to address changing business requirements, small budgets, and tight schedules. Agile emphasizes communication, customer involvement, teamwork, and frequent delivery of small, manageable, working parts of a software project. Agile incorporates a variety of iterative development disciplines including extreme programming (XP). The opposite of agile development is waterfall development.

ADO.NET

Acronym for ActiveX Data Objects for .NET—a suite of data access technologies bundled in the .NET Framework class libraries and providing relational data and XML access.

ADO.NET includes data providers and .NET classes for manipulating databases, e.g., Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, MySQL, and Oracle. ADO.NET consists of .NET Framework data providers, classes constituting the DataSet—e.g., columns, relations, rows, tables—, plus custom type definitions—e.g., SqlTypes for SQL Server.

Once known as ADO+, ADO.NET can be used from any .NET language.

Aero

Code name for the Microsoft Longhorn Operating System user experience

Ajax

Ajax—shorthand for Asynchronous Javascript and XML—is a technique for creating interactive Web applications. Like DHTML, Ajax is not a technology unto itself; rather, it is a term that refers to the use of a set of technologies to achieve an end. The goal is to create Web pages which are more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes. This way, the entire Web page need not be reloaded each time the user makes a change. Thus, the developer can increase the interactivity, speed, and usability of the Web interface.

The Ajax technique uses a combination of:

DOM access via a client-side scripting language, especially JavaScript, JScript, or other ECMAScript implementations to display and interact dynamically.

HTML or XHTML and CSS for page mark-up and style.

XML is often used as the data format for transfers between client and server.

XMLHttpRequest object for asynchronous data exchange with the Web server.

Apache Web Server

The Apache Project is an Open Source, software development effort to create a commercial-grade, fully-featured, and freely-available open source code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. It is the most widely used Web server on the Internet.

API

Acronym for Application Program Interface. Public developer interface to a bundle of code libraries, interfaces, and classes designed to support a particular problem domain, e.g. file I/O, e-Mail.

Application base

Directory in which .NET application assembly files are stored and where the .exe file which loads the initial or default application domain is located. Also known as the application directory or application folder.

When creating a custom application domain, the application base is the location specified in the AppDomainSetup class.

Application Center

Deployment and management package for COM components, Web sites, and Web services. Application Center is part of .NET Enterprise Server.

Application domain

AppDomain is the logical and physical boundary created around every .NET application within the same application scope—the sequence of object activations starting from the application entry point—by the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR can allow multiple .NET applications to be run in a single process by loading them into separate application domains. To make runtime behavior predictable, the CLR isolates each application domain from all other application domains and prevents the configuration, security, or stability of a running .NET applications from affecting other applications.

Objects can only be moved between application domains by the use of remoting.

Application framework

A set of classes and-or libraries used to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific operating system. They provide structure and services for application development. Application frameworks are extensible, modular, and reusable.

Application manifest

Part of a .NET application that provides information describing application components.

Array

A set of objects of a single type: all of which are referenced by a single identifier and indexer. In the .NET Framework, all arrays inherit from the Array class in the System namespace.

ASP.NET

Acronym for Active Server Pages for .NET. A set of technologies in the Microsoft .NET Framework bundled as .NET classes used to create Web-based, client-side (Web Form) and server-side (XML Web Services) Web applications. On the server, ASP.NET pages are executed generating markup—e.g., HTML, WML, XML—which is then sent to a browser.

ASP.NET pages are based on a compiled, event-driven, programming model which enables the separation of application logic and user interface (Java's JavaServer Pages (JSP) MVC Model 2). The server-side logic can be written in any .NET-compatible language including Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET.

ASP.NET capitalizes on the features of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), e.g., inheritance, integrated security, language interoperability, type safety, and versioning.

ASP.NET was derived from the Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) Web technology and adapted for use in the .NET Framework. Also called managed ASP and formerly known as ASP+, ASP.NET pages are normally created in C#, VB.NET, or another .NET language.

ASP.NET mobile control

Set of ASP.NET controls—extensions of their ASP.NET server control counterparts—designed for use in developing mobile Web applications.

ASP.NET mobile Web Form

Extensions to ASP.NET Web Forms designed for use in mobile devices ranging from cell phones to handheld computers.

ASP.NET server control

Server-side component encapsulating user-interface functionality. ASP.NET server controls derive from the System.Web.UI.Control class. The ASP.NET page syntax for an ASP.NET server control includes a runat="server" control tag attribute.

The superset of ASP.NET server controls includes ASP.NET mobile controls, HTML server controls, Validation server controls, and Web server controls.

ASP.NET Web application

Executing atop ASP.NET, an application for processing HTTP requests. An ASP.NET Web application can include ASP.NET pages, HTTP handlers, HTTP modules, and XML Web services.

Assembly

Assemblage of files comprising a .NET application. Files include the deployment information, resource, security management, sharing, versioning, and the executable MSIL code. An assembly may reside in a single .DLL or .EXE file or multiple files.

Assembly Binding Log Viewer

.NET programming tool for viewing and manipulating the binding information log which is updated at runtime when the CLR loads an assembly. The log viewer (Fuslogvw.exe) is useful in discerning why an assembly cannot be located at runtime and in verifying that the correct assemblies are being loaded.

Assembly cache

Reserved memory area for storing the .NET assemblies on a specific machine.

Assembly Cache Viewer

.NET programming tool for adding, configuring, removing, and viewing information in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) using Windows Explorer. The viewer (Shfusion.dll) is accessed by clicking on the %WINDIR\Assembly folder in Windows Explorer.

Assembly Dependency List

.NET programming tool (ADepends.exe) for displaying all assemblies upon which a particular assembly is dependent.

Assembly informational version

Custom attribute carrying version information for an assembly in addition to the assembly version number. Typically a string containing marketing information like the product name and release number, e.g., "Visual Studio.NET 2005".

Assembly Linking Utility

.NET programming tool (al.exe) for creating an assembly manifest from the designated MSIL modules or resource files. It calls the Assembly Linker and Assembly Generation Utility.

Assembly manifest

Detailed description of the assembly contents. A manifest contains metadata describing the name, resources, types, and version of the assembly as well as dependencies upon other assemblies. The manifest makes an assembly self-describing, easier to deploy, and not bound to a particular system because of storing data in the Windows registry.

Assembly metadata

Metadata stored in assembly files to fully describe the assembly components.

Assembly Registration Tool

.NET programming tool for registering an assembly in the Windows registry. This is required if COM clients need to call managed methods residing in a .NET assembly. Also, the tool (RegAsm.exe) can be used to generate a registry file (.reg.) containing all necessary registration information. Typically, registration occurs only when the assembly is first installed.

Assembly version number

Assembly attribute which indicates the build, revision, and version of an assembly. The version number is recorded in dot notation using four 32-bit integers in the format: .... Stored in the assembly manifest, the version number refers to the contents of a single assembly. Multiple assemblies with differing version numbers are considered by the CLR to be different assemblies.

Asta

Project researching algorithms to detect cloned code.

Atlanta

Code name of a Microsoft anti-virus product under development.

Atlas

Code name of a Microsoft tool for Ajax-style development in ASP.NET. Atlas is a set of technologies to add Ajax—Asynchronous Javascript And XML—support to ASP.NET. It comprises a client-side script framework, server controls, and more. Atlas must be installed in Visual Studio .NET or Visual Web Developer Edition.

Atom

Refers to a pair of related standards—Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for Web feeds, and Atom Publishing Protocol (APP for short) is a simple, HTTP-based protocol for creating and maintaining Web resources.

Attribute

Language constructs designed to add additional information—metadata—to component elements—assemblies, members, modules, parameters, return values, types. Typically, metadata is used by an external tool like a compiler or runtime system.

Avalon

Code name for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)—the vector-based, graphical subsystem and User Interface framework of Longhorn.