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ABOUT .NET

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.NET (dot net) is an operating engine for Microsoft's Visual Studio software development envionment and other compatible environments. Software so developed require a "framework", a collection of function modules which the software uses to accomplish tasks that would otherwise require abundant source code. One advantage of .NET is compatibility with both the desktop and Pocket PCs. Software written for .NET either in BASIC or C is virtually socketed on the .NET framework.

Software offered on this site is written in BASIC (Basic4ppc) and require that a framework is installed. For Pocket PCs, the framework is named as Compact Framework, or simply, CF. Newer Pocket PCs have .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP3 pre-installed, but recently, many software are designed for version 2.x compact frameworks, which must be installed additionally either in RAM or in a storage card. It is reasonable to assume that future Pocket PCs will have later compact framework versions pre-installed.

As with all software, there are several versions of .NET, the higher of which is believed to improve over the previous. All frameworks can be downloaded from Microsoft's web site:

For the desktop:
.NET Framework 1.1
.NET Framework 2.0
.NET Framework 3.0

for the Pocket PC:
.NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP3
.NET Compact Framework 2.0
.NET Compact Framework 3.5