Summary

Understanding the .NET technology is of primary importance in developing applications with Visual Basic 2015 because you will build applications for the .NET Framework. This chapter presented a high-level overview of the new .NET 2015 vision, showing how you can build applications for the desktop with .NET Framework 4.6 and introducing .NET Core 5, the new modular framework for building cross-platform applications. The chapter also explained key concepts such as the Common Language Runtime, the Base Class Library, and the .NET Compiler Platform. It also explained how an application is compiled and executed, including the new .NET Native technology for Windows 10 apps. You even got an overview of the most important command-line tools and the .NET languages.