Shared Source CLI Essentials [Paperback]

David Stutz (Author), Ted Neward (Author), Geoff Shilling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600351X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596003517
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,310,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent! April 26, 2003

By Jason Whittington

Format:Paperback

As someone who has spent a fair amount of time toying with and writing about managed code I have to say that I am in awe of the wisdom and clarity contained in this book. "SSCLI Essentials" transcends its subject matter (a research platform unlikely to be used much outside of academia) to be one of the best books I've ever read on Virtual Execution concepts. Java, the CLR, Smalltalk, and all other such environments ultimately have to solve the same problem (How to turn source code into executing machine instructions?). This book uses the SSCLI as a backdrop for exploring decades of VM research and explaining the historical forces influencing how and why this particular implementation (and by implication, Microsoft's commercial CLR) works.

The resulting volume is concise, fascinating, and thorough. Given the increasing importance of virtual environments in the computing world today I think most all working developers (including Java developers!) owe it to themselves to read this book. Even if you never plan to install or use the SSCLI codebase you'll benefit from Dave and friends' lucid explanation of the issues facing modern VM environments and how one particularly popular platform chooses to solve them.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best source for .NET implementation details October 28, 2003

By Richard Byers

Format:Paperback

This book is the best and most concentrated source of information I've found for understanding how the .NET CLR is implemented (comparable only to Chris Brumme's blog). Even if you never actually build the SSCLI, this book combined with the SSCLI source code can provide a solid understanding of what's going on behind the scenes in the commercial CLR. I have found this level of understanding to be absolutely necessary in understanding and diagnosing some types of unusual behaviour or performance characteristics of .NET.

If you're not using the SSCLI on a UNIX machine and have a solid understanding of the Win32 API, you can probably safely skip the last chapter on the PAL as it is somewhat anti-climatic. However, coming from a UNIX programming background myself, I found it to be of value in solidifying my understanding of Win32 specific functionality (eg. structured exception handling) and how its used by the SSCLI.

Obviously this book is a must-read for anyone that is actually experimenting with the SSCLI, but I also consider it essential for anyone that wants to fully understand how the commercial version of .NET works.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Book title and amazon.com description are not accurate March 23, 2005

By Alok Govil

Format:Paperback

The editorial description makes more claims that what the book deals with. Following are the excerpts from the book description at Amazon.com:

>> Microsoft's Shared Source CLI (code-named "Rotor") is the implementation of the ECMA Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and the ECMA C# language specification.

Above implies: (Shared Source CLI) = (Rotor) = (ECMA CLI + C#)

>> [The book] is a companion guide to Rotor's code. [It] provides a road map for anyone wishing to navigate, understand, or alter the [Rotor] code.

The book declares in the introduction that it does not cover several components of Rotor. The run-time engine is covered, but the compiler (C#) part is not. That is less that half of what was claimed. I correspondingly give 3/5 to the book.

I was interested more in the C# compiler part.