C# Deconstructed: Discover how C# works on the .NET Framework

C# Deconstructed answers a seemingly simply question: Just what is going on, exactly, when you run C# code on the .NET Framework?

To answer this question we will dig ever deeper into the structure of the C# language and the onion-skin abstraction layers of the .NET Framework that underpins it. We’ll follow the execution thread downwards, first to MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) then down through just-in-time compilation into Machine Code before finally seeing the results executed at the hardware level.

The aim of this deep-dive is to provide you with a much more rounded knowledge of the environment within which you code exists. As a managed language, it’s best-practice to let the Framework deal with device interaction but you’ll find the experience of taking the cover off once in a while a very rewarding one that will greatly enrich your appreciate of the C# language and the way in which in functions.

What you’ll learn

• Understand how C# handles your filesystem requests and passes them down to hard disks and memory
• Learn how RAM works and how programs map to address spaces
• Discover the C# compilation sequence in detail and follow it down from abstract code to actual function
• See how your device’s micro-processor executes Machine Code and just-in-time compilation provides it when it’s needed
• Learn how the Common Language Runtime (CLR) determines the execution of your code and handles Threading and Scheduling for your instructions

Who this book is for

This book is ideal for anyone who works with C# and has ever wondered what happens after they press F5.

Table of Contents

1. Anatomy of the C# compilation stack
2. Data Access, Files and Storage
3. Understanding Memory Usage
4. The C# Compilation Sequence
5. From CIL to Machine Code
6. Execution through the CLR
7. Execution Model II