.NET - .NET Framework

In .NET 4.0, the CLR supports covariance and contravariance of types in generic interfaces and delegates. Covariance enables you to cast a generic type to its base types, that is, you can assign a instance of type IEnumerable<Tl> to a variable of type IEnumerable<T2> where, T1 derives from T2. For example,

IEnumerable<string> str1= new List<string> ();
IEnumerable<object> str2= str1;

Contravariance allows you to assign a variable of Action<base> to a variable of type Action<derived>. For example,

IComparer<object> obj1 = GetComparer() 
IComparer<string> obj2 = obj1;

.NET framework 4.0 uses some language keywords (out and in) to annotate covariance and contra-variance. Out is used for covariance, while in is used for contra-variance.

Variance can be applied only to reference types, generic interfaces, and generic delegates. These cannot be applied to value types and generic types.

The following are the different ways to assign a value to a complex number:

By passing two Double values to its constructor. The first value represents the real, and the second value represents imaginary part of a complex number.
For example,

Complex c1 = new Complex(5, 8); /* It represents (5, 8) */

By assigning a Byte, SByte, Intl6, UIntl6, Int32, UInt32, Int64, UInt64, Single, or Double value to a Complex object. The assigned value represents the real part of the complex number, and its imaginary part becomes 0. For example,

Complex c2 = 15.3; /* It represents (15.3, 0) */

By casting a Decimal or BigInteger value to a Complex object.
For example,

Complex c3 = (Complex) 14.7; /* It represents (14.7, 0) */

Assigning the value returned by an operator to a Complex variable.
For example,

Complex c4 = c1 + c2; /* It represents (20.3, 8) */

CLS is a set of basic rules, which must be followed by each .NET language to be a .NET- compliant language. It enables interoperability between two .NET-compliant languages. CLS is a subset of CTS; therefore, the languages supported by CLS can use each other's class libraries similar to their own. Application programming interfaces (APIs), which are designed by following the rules defined in CLS can be used by all .NET-compliant languages.

The JIT compiler is an important element of CLR, which loads MSIL on target machines for execution. The MSIL is stored in .NET assemblies after the developer has compiled the code written in any .NET-compliant programming language, such as Visual Basic and C#.

JIT compiler translates the MSIL code of an assembly and uses the CPU architecture of the target machine to execute a .NET application. It also stores the resulting native code so that it is accessible for subsequent calls. If a code executing on a target machine calls a non-native method, the JIT compiler converts the MSIL of that method into native code. JIT compiler also enforces type-safety in runtime environment of .NET Framework. It checks for the values that are passed to parameters of any method.

For example, the JIT compiler detects any event, if a user tries to assign a 32-bit value to a parameter that can only accept 8-bit value.