What is a CLR

What is a CLR?

Full form of CLR is Common Language Runtime and it forms the heart of the .NET
framework.All Languages have runtime and its the responsibility of the runtime to take care of

the code execution of the program.For example VC++ has MSCRT40.DLL,VB6 has
MSVBVM60.DLL , Java has Java Virtual Machine etc. Similarly .NET has CLR.

Following are the responsibilities of CLR

√ Garbage Collection :- CLR automatically manages memory thus eliminating
memory leakes. When objects are not referred GC automatically releases those
memory thus providing efficient memory management.

√ Code Access Security :- CAS grants rights to program depending on the security
configuration of the machine.Example the program has rights to edit or create
a new file but the security configuration of machine does not allow the program
to delete a file.CAS will take care that the code runs under the environment of
machines security configuration.

√ Code Verification :- This ensures proper code execution and type safety while
the code runs.It prevents the source code to perform illegal operation such as
accessing invalid memory locations etc.

√ IL( Intermediate language )-to-native translators and optimizer’s :- CLR uses
JIT and compiles the IL code to machine code and then executes. CLR also
determines depending on platform what is optimized way of running the IL
code.