Is .NET Framework Class Library source code open?

19 Jan 2006 3:55 AM

Chris

Hi,

I am interested in learning how .net class library works for diagnosing some
strange behavior in my application.
Is there a place I can get source code of the class library?
I worked on Java for many years, what really helped me is to learn the
under-hood mechanism of the JDK classes.

Thanks in advance.
Chris

19 Jan 2006 6:26 AM

Mattias Sjögren

Chris,

>Is there a place I can get source code of the class library?

Parts of it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/sscli/

Mattias

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Please reply only to the newsgroup.

19 Jan 2006 7:23 AM

Jon Skeet [C# MVP]

Mattias Sjögren <mattias.dont.want.spam@mvps.org> wrote:

> >Is there a place I can get source code of the class library?
>
> Parts of it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/sscli/

Note that although that's *an* implementation of a lot of the class
libraries, it's not the same implementation which is used in .NET
itself. In many places it may be very similar, but there's no
guarantee.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
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If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

29 Jan 2006 5:53 PM

Richard Grimes [MVP]

Jon Skeet [C# MVP] wrote:

> Mattias Sjögren <mattias.dont.want.spam@mvps.org> wrote:
>>> Is there a place I can get source code of the class library?
>>
>> Parts of it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/sscli/
>
> Note that although that's *an* implementation of a lot of the class
> libraries, it's not the same implementation which is used in .NET
> itself. In many places it may be very similar, but there's no
> guarantee.

Of course, if you compare practically any class in the framework library
in SSCLI with the code returned from Reflector for 1.1 of the framework,
the only difference is that the SSCLI has useful comments in it ;-)

Reflection and metadata means that the framework library is essentially
'open', but to *really* understand why classes are implemented the way
they are you need the developer's comments. That's what makes SSCLI so
useful :-)

Richard

--
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19 Jan 2006 6:45 AM

Lloyd Dupont

Reflector is also quite helpfull.
http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/

--
Regards,
Lloyd Dupont

NovaMind development team
NovaMind Software
Mind Mapping Software
<www.nova-mind.com>

Show quote

"Chris" <chrisforng@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:OwNwswKHGHA.3904@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> I am interested in learning how .net class library works for diagnosing
> some strange behavior in my application.
> Is there a place I can get source code of the class library?
> I worked on Java for many years, what really helped me is to learn the
> under-hood mechanism of the JDK classes.
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Chris
>

19 Jan 2006 9:06 AM

Jeffrey Tan[MSFT]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your post.

Currently, the .Net Framework class library is not open source, although
downloading and using it will be free. However, Microsoft has maintained an
open source implementation specification for .Net1.0, which is called
Shared Source CLI, for more information, please refer to the link below:
"Shared Source CLI Provides Source Code for a FreeBSD Implementation of
.NET"
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/07/SharedSourceCLI/

Additionally, if you are only curious with .Net FCL, you can use the tool
Reflector. Reflector did a good decompilation regarding .Net FCL
assemblies, and we can view the FCL code in C#, VB.net, IL etc...

Hope it helps

Best regards,
<you alias>
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.