Shared Source CLI Essentials : Exploring Microsoft's Rotor and the ECMA CLI

Microsoft's Shared Source CLI (code-named "Rotor") is the publicly available implementation of the ECMA Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and the ECMA C# language specification. Loaded with three million lines of source code, it presents a wealth of programming language technology that targets developers interested in the internal workings of the Microsoft .NET Framework, academics working with advanced compiler technology, and people developing their own CLI implementations. The CLI, at its heart, is an approach to building software that enables code from many independent sources to co-exist and interoperate safely. Shared Source CLI Essentials is a companion guide to Rotor's code. This concise and insightful volume provides a road map for anyone wishing to navigate, understand, or alter the Shared Source CLI code. This book illustrates the design principles used in the CLI standard and discusses the complexities involved when building virtual machines. Included with the book is a CD-ROM that contains all the source code and files. After introducing the CLI, its core concepts, and the Shared Source CLI implementation, Shared Source CLI Essentials covers these topics:

• The CLI type system
• Component packaging and assemblies
• Type loading and JIT Compilation
• Managed code and the execution engine
• Garbage collection and memory management
• The Platform Adaptation Layer (PAL): a portability layer for Win32®, Mac OS® X, and FreeBSD

Written by members of the core Microsoft® team that designed the .NET Framework, Shared Source CLI Essentials is for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of what goes on under the hood of the .NET runtime and the ECMA CLI. Advanced .NET programmers, researchers, the academic community, and CLI implementers who have asked hard questions about the .NET Framework will find that this behind-the-scenes look at the .NET nucleus provides them with excellent resources from which they can extract answers.

David Stutz has been a professional musician since boyhood. Despite this impediment, he has also managed to actively participate in the evolution of a number of computer languages, programming models, and developer tools - most recently Microsoft's "Rotor" project (the Shared Source CLI). As a software architect and kibitzer, he has been involved in the early design stage of many technologies, including software component models, systems, database products, network protocols, and a whole lot of other hard-to-categorize plumbing. He is also an accomplished musical performer and a winegrape farmer.

Ted Neward is an independent software development architect and mentor in the Sacramento, California area. He is the author of a number of books, including Server-Based Java Programming (Manning), the forthcoming EffectiveEnterprise Java (Addison-Wesley) and Shared Source CLI Essentials (O'Reilly) and co-author of C# In a Nutshell (O'Reilly) with Peter Drayton and Ben Albahari. He is also an instructor with DevelopMentor, where he teaches and authors both the Java and .NET curriculum. He speaks frequently for technology user groups and writes technical papers for www.javageeks.com and www.clrgeeks.com. He currently labors on behalf of the University of California, Davis, architecting a rebuild of the Davis Accounting and Financial Information Services software system. Past clients include companies like Pacific Bell, EdFund, Synergex and Intuit.

Geoff Shilling is a product unit manager at Microsoft Corporation, currently leading the Shared Source CLI project. During his career at Microsoft, Geoff has been tester, developer and manager, shipping five versions of C, one version of FORTRAN, three versions of Visual Basic. When not building development tools, Geoff is frequently found at a loom weaving or in the shop building another boat.