Dot Net Technology Que/Ans Set-8

72. What is garbage collection?

Ans: Garbage collection is a system whereby a run-time component takes responsibility for managing the lifetime of objects and the heap memory that they occupy. This concept is not new to .NET - Java and many other languages/runtimes have used garbage collection for some time.

73. Why doesn't the .NET runtime offer deterministic destruction?Ans: Because of the garbage collection algorithm. The .NET garbage collector works by periodically running through a list of all the objects that are currently being referenced by an application. All the objects that it doesn't find during this search are ready to be destroyed and the memory reclaimed. The implication of this algorithm is that the runtime doesn't get notified immediately when the final reference on an object goes away - it only finds out during the next sweep of the heap.
Futhermore, this type of algorithm works best by performing the garbage collection sweep as rarely as possible. Normally heap exhaustion is the trigger for a collection sweep.

74. Is the lack of deterministic destruction in .NET a problem?Ans: It's certainly an issue that affects component design. If you have objects that maintain expensive or scarce resources (e.g. database locks), you need to provide some way for the client to tell the object to release the resource when it is done. Microsoft recommend that you provide a method called Dispose() for this purpose. However, this causes problems for distributed objects - in a distributed system who calls the Dispose() method? Some form of reference-counting or ownership-management mechanism is needed to handle distributed objects - unfortunately the runtime offers no help with this.

75. What is serialization? 

Ans: Serialization is the process of converting an object into a stream of bytes. Deserialization is the opposite process of creating an object from a stream of bytes. Serialization / Deserialization is mostly used to transport objects (e.g. during remoting), or to persist

objects (e.g. to a file or database).

76. Does the .NET Framework have in-built support for serialization? There are two separate mechanisms provided by the .NET class library - XmlSerializer and SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter. Microsoft uses XmlSerializer for Web Services, and uses SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter for remoting. Both are available for use in your own code.

77. Can I customise the serialization process? 

Ans: Yes. XmlSerializer supports a range of attributes that can be used to configure serialization for a particular class. For example, a field or property can be marked with the [XmlIgnore] attribute to exclude it from serialization. Another example is the [XmlElement]

attribute, which can be used to specify the XML element name to be used for a particular property or field.
Serialization via SoapFormatter/BinaryFormatter can also be controlled to some extent by attributes. For example, the [NonSerialized] attribute is the equivalent of XmlSerializer's [XmlIgnore] attribute. Ultimate control of the serialization process can be acheived by implementing the the ISerializable interface on the class whose instances are to be serialized.

78. Why is XmlSerializer so slow?

Ans: There is a once-per-process-per-type overhead with XmlSerializer. So the first time you serialize or deserialize an object of a given type in an application, there is a significant delay. This normally doesn't matter, but it may mean, for example, that XmlSerializer is a poor choice for loading configuration settings during startup of a GUI application.

79. Why do I get errors when I try to serialize a Hashtable?

Ans:  XmlSerializer will refuse to serialize instances of any class that implements IDictionary, e.g. Hashtable. SoapFormatter and BinaryFormatter do not have this restriction.

80. What are attributes? 

Ans: There are at least two types of .NET attribute. The first type I will refer to as a metadata attribute - it allows some data to be attached to a class or method. This data becomes part of the metadata for the class, and (like other class metadata) can be accessed via reflection. The other type of attribute is a context attribute. Context attributes use a similar syntax to metadata attributes but they are fundamentally different. Context attributes provide an interception mechanism whereby instance activation and method calls can be

pre- and/or post-processed.                                                             

81. How does CAS work? 

Ans: The CAS security policy revolves around two key concepts - code groups and permissions. Each .NET assembly is a member of a particular code group, and each code group is granted the permissions specified in a named permission set.
For example, using the default security policy, a control downloaded from a web site belongs to the 'Zone - Internet' code group, which adheres to the permissions defined by the 'Internet' named permission set. (Naturally the 'Internet' named permission set represents a very restrictive range of permissions.)

82. Who defines the CAS code groups?

Ans:  Microsoft defines some default ones, but you can modify these and even create your own. To see the code groups defined on your system, run 'caspol -lg' from the command-line. On my system it looks like this:
Level = Machine

Code Groups:

1.  All code: Nothing
   1.1.  Zone - MyComputer: FullTrust
   1.1.1.  Honor SkipVerification requests: SkipVerification
   1.2.  Zone - Intranet: LocalIntranet
   1.3.  Zone - Internet: Internet
   1.4.  Zone - Untrusted: Nothing
   1.5.  Zone - Trusted: Internet
   1.6.  StrongName - 0024000004800000940000000602000000240000525341310004000003
000000CFCB3291AA715FE99D40D49040336F9056D7886FED46775BC7BB5430BA4444FEF8348EBD06
F962F39776AE4DC3B7B04A7FE6F49F25F740423EBF2C0B89698D8D08AC48D69CED0FC8F83B465E08
07AC11EC1DCC7D054E807A43336DDE408A5393A48556123272CEEEE72F1660B71927D38561AABF5C
AC1DF1734633C602F8F2D5: 

Note the hierarchy of code groups - the top of the hierarchy is the most general ('All code'), which is then sub-divided into several

groups, each of which in turn can be sub-divided. Also note that (somewhat counter-intuitively) a sub-group can be associated with a more permissive permission set than its parent.

Dot Net Technology Que/Ans Set-7

61. What is Boxing and unboxing? 
Ans: Does it occure automaatically or u need to write code to box and unbox? Boxing – Process of converting a System.ValueType to Reference Type , Mostly base class System.Object type and allocating it memory on Heap .Reverse is unboxing , but can only be done with prior boxed variables.

Boxing is always implicit but Unboxing needs to be explicitly done via casting , thus ensuring the value type contained inside .

62. How Boxing and unboxing occures in memory?
Ans: Boxing converts value type to reference type , thus allocating memory on Heap . Unboxing converts already boxed reference types to value types through explicit casting , thus  allocating memory on stack .

63. Why only boxed types can be unboxed?
Ans: Unboxing is the process of converting a Reference type variable to Value type and thus allocating memory on the stack . It happens only to those Reference type variables that have been earlier created by Boxing of a Value Type , therefore internally they contain a value type , which can be obtained through explicit casting . For any other Reference type , they don’t internally contain a Value type to Unboxed via explicit casting . This is why only boxed types can be unboxed .

64. What is side-by-side execution?
Ans: Can two application one using private assembly and other using Shared assembly be stated as a side-by-side executables? Side-by-side execution is the ability to run multiple versions of an application or component on the same computer. You can have multiple versions of the common language runtime, and multiple versions of applications and components that use a version of the runtime, on the same computer at the same time. Since versioning is only applied to shared assemblies, and not to private assemblies, two application one using private assembly and one using shared assembly cannot be stated as side-by-side

executables.

65. Why string are called Immutable data Type ? 
Ans: The memory representation of string is an Array of Characters, So on re-assigning the new array of Char is formed & the start address is changed . Thus keeping the Old string in Memory for Garbage Collector to be disposed.

66. What does assert() method do? In debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and shows the error dialog if the condition is false. The program proceeds without any interruption if the condition is true.

67. What's the difference between the Debug class and Trace class? 
Ans: Documentation looks the same.  Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds.

68. Why are there five tracing levels in System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitcher? The tracing dumps can be quite verbose.  For applications that are constantly running you run the risk of overloading the machine and the hard drive.  Five levels range from None to Verbose, allowing you to fine-tune the tracing activities.

69. Where is the output of TextWriterTraceListener redirected?Ans:To the Console or a text file depending on the parameter passed to the constructor.

70. How do assemblies find each other?
Ans: By searching directory paths. There are several factors which can affect the path (such as the AppDomain host, and application configuration files), but for private assemblies the search path is normally the application's directory and its sub-directories. For shared assemblies, the search path is normally same as the private assembly path plus the shared assembly cache.

71. How does assembly versioning work?
Ans: Each assembly has a version number called the compatibility version. Also each reference to an assembly (from another assembly) includes both the name and version of the referenced assembly.The version number has four numeric parts (e.g. 5.5.2.33). Assemblies with either of the first two parts different are normally viewed as incompatible. If the first two parts are the same, but the third is different, the assemblies are deemed as 'maybe compatible'. If only the fourth part is different, the assemblies are deemed compatible. However, this is just the default guideline - it is the version policy that decides to what extent these rules are enforced. The version policy can be specified via the application configuration file.

Dot Net Technology Que/Ans Set-6

52. How do you generate a strong name?

.NET provides an utility called strong name tool. You can run this toolfrom the VS.NET command prompt to generate a strong name with an option "-k" and providing the strong key file name. i.e. sn- -k < file-name >

What is the difference between a Debug and Release build? Is there a significant speed difference? Why or why not?
The Debug build is the program compiled with full symbolic debug information and no optimization. The Release build is the program compiled employing  optimization and contains no symbolic debug information. These settings can be changed as per need from Project Configuration properties. The release runs faster since it does not have any debug symbols and is optimized.

53. Explain the use of virtual, sealed, override, and abstract. Abstract: The keyword can be applied for a class or method.
1. Class: If we use abstract keyword for a class it makes the
class an abstract class, which means it cant be instantiated. Though
it is not nessacary to make all the method within the  abstract class to be virtual. ie, Abstract class can have concrete methods
2. Method: If we make a method as abstract, we dont need to provide implementation of the method in the class but the derived class need to implement/override this method.

Sealed: It can be applied on a class and methods. It stops the type from further derivation i.e no one can derive class
from a sealed class,ie A sealed class cannot be inherited.A sealed class cannot be a abstract class.A compile time error is thrown if you try to specify sealed class as a  base class.
When an instance method declaration includes a sealed modifier, that method is said to be a sealed method. If an instance method declaration includes the sealed modifier, it must also include the override modifier. Use of the sealed modifier prevents a derived class from further overriding the method  For Egs: sealed override public void Sample() { Console.WriteLine("Sealed Method"); }

Virtual & Override: Virtual & Override keywords provides runtime polymorphism. A base class can make some of its methods
as virtual which allows the derived class a chance to override the base class implementation by using override keyword.

For e.g. class Shape
  {
  int a
  public virtual void Display()
  {
   Console.WriteLine("Shape");
  }
 }

 class Rectangle:Shape
 {
  public override void Display()
  {
   Console.WriteLine("Derived");
  }
 }

54. Explain the importance and use of each, Version, Culture and PublicKeyToken for an assembly. Ans:This three alongwith name of the assembly provide a strong name or fully qualified name to the assembly. When a assebly is referenced with all three.

PublicKeyToken: Each assembly can have a public key embedded in its manifest that identifies the developer. This ensures that once the assembly ships, no one can modify the code or other resources contained in the assembly.

Culture: Specifies which culture the assembly supports

Version: The version number of the assembly.It is of the following form major.minor.build.revision.

Explain the differences between public, protected, private and internal.
These all are access modifier and they governs the access level. They can be applied to class, methods, fields.

Public: Allows class, methods, fields to be accessible from anywhere i.e. within and outside an assembly.

Private: When applied to field and method allows to be accessible within a class.

Protected: Similar to private but can be accessed by members of derived class also.

Internal: They are public within the assembly i.e. they can be accessed by anyone within an assembly but outside assembly they are not visible.

55. What is the difference between typeof(foo) and myFoo.GetType()? Typeof is operator which applied to a object returns System.Type object. Typeof cannot be overloaded white GetType has lot of overloads.GetType is a method which also returns System.Type of an object. GetType is used to get the runtime type of the object.

Example from MSDN showing Gettype used to retrive type at untime:-

public class MyBaseClass: Object {
}

public class MyDerivedClass: MyBaseClass {
}

public class Test {

   public static void Main() {
      MyBaseClass myBase = new MyBaseClass();
      MyDerivedClass myDerived = new MyDerivedClass();
      object o = myDerived;
      MyBaseClass b = myDerived;

      Console.WriteLine("mybase: Type is {0}", myBase.GetType());
      Console.WriteLine("myDerived: Type is {0}", myDerived.GetType());
      Console.WriteLine("object o = myDerived: Type is {0}", o.GetType());
      Console.WriteLine("MyBaseClass b = myDerived: Type is {0}", b.GetType());
   }
}

/*

This code produces the following output.

mybase: Type is MyBaseClass
myDerived: Type is MyDerivedClass
object o = myDerived: Type is MyDerivedClass
MyBaseClass b = myDerived: Type is MyDerivedClass

*/

56. Can "this" be used within a static method? No 'This' cannot be used in a static method. As only static variables/methods can be used in a static method.

57. What is the purpose of XML Namespaces?

Ans: An XML Namespace is a collection of element types and attribute names. It consists of 2 parts
1) The first part is the URI used to identify the namespace
2) The second part is the element type or attribute name itself.
Together they form a unique name. The various purpose of XML Namespace are

1. Combine fragments from different documents without any naming conflicts. (See example below.)
2. Write reusable code modules that can be invoked for specific elements and attributes. Universally unique names guarantee that
such modules are invoked only for the correct elements and attributes.
3. Define elements and attributes that can be reused in other schemas or instance documents without fear of name collisions. For
example, you might use XHTML elements in a parts catalog to provide part descriptions. Or you might use the nil attribute
defined in XML Schemas to indicate a missing value.

< Department >
     < Name >DVS1< /Name >
     < addr:Address xmlns:addr="http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/ito/addresses" >
        < addr:Street >Wilhelminenstr. 7< /addr:Street >
        < addr:City >Darmstadt< /addr:City >
        < addr:State >Hessen< /addr:State >
        < addr:Country >Germany< /addr:Country >
        < addr:PostalCode >D-64285< /addr:PostalCode >
     < /addr:Address >
     < serv:Server xmlns:serv="http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/ito/servers" >
        < serv:Name >OurWebServer< /serv:Name >
        < serv:Address >123.45.67.8< /serv:Address >
     < /serv:Server >
  < /Department >

58. What is difference between MetaData and Manifest ? Metadata and Manifest forms an integral part of an assembly( dll / exe ) in .net framework . Out of which Metadata is a mandatory component , which as the name suggests gives the details about various components of IL code viz : Methods , properties , fields , class etc.

Essentially Metadata maintains details in form of tables like Methods Metadata tables , Properties Metadata tables , which maintains the list of given type and other details like access specifier , return type etc.

Now Manifest is a part of metadata only , fully called as “manifest metadata tables” , it contains the details of the references needed by the assembly of any other external assembly / type , it could be a custom assembly or standard System namespace .

Now for an assembly that can independently exists and used in the .Net world both the things ( Metadata with Manifest ) are mandatory , so that it can be fully described assembly and can be ported anywhere without any system dependency . Essentially .Net framework can read all assembly related information from assembly itself at runtime .

But for .Net modules , that can’t be used independently , until they are being packaged as a part of an assembly , they don’t contain Manifest but their complete structure is defined by their respective metadata .

Ultimately . .Net modules use Manifest Metadata tables of parent assembly which contain them .

59. What is the use of Internal keyword?

Ans: Internal keyword is one of the access specifier available in .Net framework , that makes a type visible in a  given assembly , for e.g : a single dll can contain multiple modules , essentially a multi file assembly , but it forms a single binary component , so any type with internal keyword will be visible throughout the assembly and can be used in any of the modules .

60. What actually happes when you add a something to arraylistcollection ? Following things will happen :

Arraylist is a dynamic array class in c# in System.Collections namespace derived from interfaces – ICollection , IList , ICloneable , IConvertible  . It terms of in memory structure following is the implementation .

a. Check up the total space if there’s any free space on the declared list .
b. If yes add the new item and increase count by 1 .
c. If No Copy the whole thing to a temporary Array of Last Max. Size .
d. Create new Array with size ( Last Array Size + Increase Value )
e. Copy back values from temp and reference this new array as original array .
f. Must doing Method updates too , need to check it up .

Dot Net Technology Que/Ans Set-5

41. What is an Asssembly Qualified Name? Is it a filename? How is it different?

An assembly qualified name isn't the filename of the assembly; it's the internal name of the assembly combined with the assembly version, culture, and public key, thus making it unique.

e.g. (""System.Xml.XmlDocument, System.Xml, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"")

42. How is a strongly-named assembly different from one that isn’t strongly-named?

Strong names are used to enable the stricter naming requirements associated with shared assemblies. These strong names are created by a .NET utility – sn.exe

Strong names have three goals:
· Name uniqueness. Shared assemblies must have names that are globally unique.
· Prevent name spoofing. Developers don't want someone else releasing a subsequent version of one of your assemblies and falsely claim it came from you, either by accident or intentionally.
· Provide identity on reference. When resolving a reference to an assembly, strong names are used to guarantee the assembly that is loaded came from the expected publisher.

Strong names are implemented using standard public key cryptography. In general, the process works as follows: The author of an assembly generates a key pair (or uses an existing one), signs the file containing the manifest with the private key, and makes the public key available to callers. When references are made to the assembly, the caller records the public key corresponding to the private key used to generate the strong name.

Weak named assemblies are not suitable to be added in GAC and shared. It is essential for an assembly to be strong named.

Strong naming prevents tampering and enables assemblies to be placed in the GAC alongside other assemblies of the same name.

43. How does the generational garbage collector in the .NET CLR manage object lifetime? What is non-deterministic finalization? The hugely simplistic version is that every time it garbage-collects, it starts by assuming everything to be garbage, then goes through and builds a list of everything reachable. Those become not-garbage, everything else doesn't, and gets thrown away. What makes it generational is that every time an object goes through this process and survives, it is noted as being a member of an older generation (up to 2, right now). When the garbage-collector is trying to free memory, it starts with the lowest generation (0) and only works up to higher ones if it can't free up enough space, on the grounds that shorter-lived objects are more likely to have been freed than longer-lived ones.

Non-deterministic finalization implies that the destructor (if any) of an object will not necessarily be run (nor its memory cleaned up, but that's a relatively minor issue) immediately upon its going out of scope. Instead, it will wait until first the garbage collector gets around to finding it, and then the finalisation queue empties down to it; and if the process ends before this happens, it may not be finalised at all. (Although the operating system will usually clean up any process-external resources left open - note the usually there, especially as the exceptions tend to hurt a lot.)

44. What is the difference between Finalize() and Dispose()? Dispose() is called by the user of an object to indicate that he is finished with it, enabling that object to release any unmanaged resources it holds. Finalize() is called by the run-time to allow an object which has not had Dispose() called on it to do the same. However, Dispose() operates determinalistically, whereas there is no guarantee that Finalize() will be called immediately when an object goes out of scope - or indeed at all, if the program ends before that object is GCed - and as such Dispose() is generally preferred.

45. How is the using() pattern useful? What is IDisposable? How does it support deterministic finalization? The using() pattern is useful because it ensures that Dispose() will always be called when a disposable object (defined as one that implements IDisposable, and thus the Dispose() method) goes out of scope, even if it does so by an exception being thrown, and thus that resources are always released.

46. What does this useful command line do? tasklist /m "mscor*" Lists all the applications and associated tasks/process currently  running on the system with a module whose name begins "mscor" loaded into them; which in nearly all cases means "all the .NET processes".

47. What’s wrong with a line like this? DateTime.Parse(myString); Therez nothing wrong with this declaration.Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent.But If the string is not a valid DateTime,It throws an exception.

48. What are PDBs? Where must they be located for debugging to work? A program database (PDB) files holds debugging and project state information that allows incremental linking of debug configuration of your program.There are several different types of symbolic debugging information. The default type for Microsoft compiler is the so-called PDB file. The compiler setting for creating this file is /Zi, or /ZI for C/C++(which creates a PDB file with additional information that enables a feature called ""Edit and Continue"") or a Visual Basic/C#/JScript .NET program with /debug.

A PDB file is a separate file, placed by default in the Debug project subdirectory, that has the same name as the executable file with the extension .pdb. Note that the Visual C++ compiler by default creates an additional PDB file called VC60.pdb for VisulaC++6.0 and VC70.PDB file for VisulaC++7.0. The compiler creates this file during compilation of the source code, when the compiler isn't aware of the final name of the executable. The linker can merge this temporary PDB file into the main one if you tell it to, but it won't do it by default. The PDB file can be useful to display the detailed stack trace with source files and line numbers.

49. What is FullTrust? Do GAC’ed assemblies have FullTrust? Before the .NET Framework existed, Windows had two levels of trust for downloaded code. This old model was a binary trust model. You only had two choices: Full Trust, and No Trust. The code could either do anything you could do, or it wouldn't run at all.

The permission sets in .NET include FullTrust, SkipVerification, Execution, Nothing, LocalIntranet, Internet and Everything. Full Trust Grants unrestricted permissions to system resources. Fully trusted code run by a normal, nonprivileged user cannot do administrative tasks, but can access any resources the user can access, and do anything the user can do. From a security standpoint, you can think of fully trusted code as being similar to native, unmanaged code, like a traditional ActiveX control.
GAC assemblies are granted FullTrust. In v1.0 and 1.1, the fact that assemblies in the GAC seem to always get a FullTrust grant is actually a side effect of the fact that the GAC lives on the local machine.  If anyone were to lock down the security policy by changing the grant set of the local machine to something less than FullTrust, and if your assembly did not get extra permission from some other code group, it would no longer have FullTrust even though it lives in the GAC.

50. What does this do? gacutil /l | find /i "Corillian" The Global Assembly Cache tool allows you to view and manipulate the contents of the global assembly cache and download cache.The tool comes with various optional params to do that.
""/l"" option Lists the contents of the global assembly cache. If you specify the assemblyName parameter(/l [assemblyName]), the tool lists only the assemblies matching that name.

51. What does this do .. sn -t foo.dll ?

Sn -t option displays the token for the public key stored in infile. The contents of infile must be previously generated using -p.
Sn.exe computes the token using a hash function from the public key. To save space, the common language runtime stores public key tokens in the manifest as part of a reference to another assembly when it records a dependency to an assembly that has a strong name. The -tp option displays the public key in addition to the token.

Dot Net Technology Que/Ans Set-4

31. Can a nested object be used in Serialization ?

Ans : Yes. If a class that is to be serialized contains references to objects of other classes, and if those classes have been marked as serializable, then their objects are serialized too.

32. Difference between int and int32 ?

Ans : Both are same. System.Int32 is a .NET class. Int is an alias name for System.Int32.

33. Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process?

Ans : A Process is an instance of an running application. And a thread is the Execution stream of the Process. A process can have multiple Thread.
When a process starts a specific memory area is allocated to it. When there is multiple thread in a process, each thread gets a memory for storing the variables in it and plus they can access to the global variables which is common for all the thread. Eg.A Microsoft Word is a Application. When you open a word file,an instance of the Word starts and a process is allocated to this instance which has one thread.

34. What is the difference between an EXE and a DLL? Ans : You can create an objects of Dll but not of the EXE.
Dll is an In-Process Component whereas EXE is an OUt-Process Component.Exe is for single use whereas you can use Dll for multiple use.
Exe can be started as standalone where dll cannot be.

35. What is strong-typing versus weak-typing? 

Ans:Which is preferred? Why? Ans : Strong typing implies that the types of variables involved in operations are associated to the variable, checked at compile-time, and require explicit conversion; weak typing implies that they are associated to the value, checked at run-time, and are implicitly converted as required. (Which is preferred is a disputable point, but I personally prefer strong typing because I like my errors to be found as soon as possible.)

36. What is a PID? How is it useful when troubleshooting a system? Ans: PID is the process Id of the application in Windows. Whenever a process starts running in the Windows environment, it is associated with an individual process Id or PID.

37. The PID (Process ID) a unique number for each item on the Process Tab, Image Name list. How do you get the PID to appear?

 Ans : In Task Manger, select the View menu, then select columns and check PID (Process Identifier).

In Linux, PID is used to debug a process explicitly. However we cannot do this in a windows environment.

Microsoft has launched a SDK called as Microsoft Operations Management (MOM). This uses the PID to find out which dll’s have been loaded by a process in the memory. This is essentially helpful in situations where the Process which has a memory leak is to be traced to a erring dll. Personally I have never used a PID, our Windows debugger does the things required to find out.

38. What is the GAC? What problem does it solve? Each computer where the common language runtime is installed has a machine-wide code cache called the global assembly cache. The global assembly cache stores assemblies that are to be shared by several applications on the computer. This area is typically the folder under windows or winnt in the machine.

All the assemblies that need to be shared across applications need to be done through the Global assembly Cache only. However it is not necessary to install assemblies into the global assembly cache to make them accessible to COM interop or unmanaged code.

There are several ways to deploy an assembly into the global assembly cache:
· Use an installer designed to work with the global assembly cache. This is the preferred option for installing assemblies into the global assembly cache.
· Use a developer tool called the Global Assembly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provided by the .NET Framework SDK.
· Use Windows Explorer to drag assemblies into the cache.

GAC solves the problem of DLL Hell and DLL versioning. Unlike earlier situations, GAC can hold two assemblies of the same name but different version. This ensures that the applications which access a particular assembly continue to access the same assembly even if another version of that assembly is installed on that machine.

39. Describe what an Interface is and how it’s different from a Class. An interface is a structure of code which is similar to a class. An interface is a prototype for a class and is useful from a logical design perspective. Interfaces provide a means to define the protocols for a class without worrying about the implementation details. The syntax for creating interfaces follows:
interface Identifier {
  InterfaceBody
}

Identifier is the name of the interface and InterfaceBody refers to the abstract methods and static final variables that make up the interface. Because it is assumed that all the methods in an interface are abstract, it isn't necessary to use the abstract keyword

An interface is a description of some of the members available from a class. In practice, the syntax typically looks similar to a class definition, except that there's no code defined for the methods — just their name, the arguments passed and the type of the value returned.
So what good is it? None by itself. But you create an interface so that classes will implement it.

But what does it mean to implement an interface. The interface acts as a contract or promise. If a class implements an interface, then it must have the properties and methods of the interface defined in the class. This is enforced by the compiler.

Broadly the differentiators between classes and interfaces is as follows
• Interface should not have any implementation.
• Interface can not create any instance.
• Interface should provide high level abstraction from the implementation.
• Interface can have multiple inheritances.
• Default access level of the interface is public.

40. What is the difference between XML Web Services using ASMX and .NET Remoting using SOAP?

ASP.NET Web services and .NET Remoting provide a full suite of design options for cross-process and cross-plaform communication in distributed applications. In general, ASP.NET Web services provide the highest levels of interoperability with full support for WSDL and SOAP over HTTP, while .NET Remoting is designed for common language runtime type-system fidelity and supports additional data format and communication channels. Hence if we looking cross-platform communication than web services is the choice coz for .NET remoting .Net framework is requried which may or may not present for the other platform. Serialization and Metadata
ASP.NET Web services rely on the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer class to marshal data to and from SOAP messages at runtime. For metadata, they generate WSDL and XSD definitions that describe what their messages contain. The reliance on pure WSDL and XSD makes ASP.NET Web services metadata portable; it expresses data structures in a way that other Web service toolkits on different platforms and with different programming models can understand. In some cases, this imposes constraints on the types you can expose from a Web service—XmlSerializer will only marshal things that can be expressed in XSD. Specifically, XmlSerializer will not marshal object graphs and it has limited support for container types.

.NET Remoting relies on the pluggable implementations of the IFormatter interface used by the System.Runtime.Serialization engine to marshal data to and from messages. There are two standard formatters, System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter and System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter. The BinaryFormatter and SoapFormatter, as the names suggest, marshal types in binary and SOAP format respectively. For metadata, .NET Remoting relies on the common language runtime assemblies, which contain all the relevant information about the data types they implement, and expose it via reflection. The reliance on the assemblies for metadata makes it easy to preserve the full runtime type-system fidelity. As a result, when the .NET Remoting plumbing marshals data, it includes all of a class's public and private members; handles object graphs correctly; and supports all container types (e.g., System.Collections.Hashtable). However, the reliance on runtime metadata also limits the reach of a .NET Remoting system—a client has to understand .NET constructs in order to communicate with a .NET Remoting endpoint. In addition to pluggable formatters, the .NET Remoting layer supports pluggable channels, which abstract away the details of how messages are sent. There are two standard channels, one for raw TCP and one for HTTP. Messages can be sent over either channel independent of format.

Distributed Application Design: ASP.NET Web Services vs. .NET Remoting
ASP.NET Web services favor the XML Schema type system, and provide a simple programming model with broad cross-platform reach. .NET Remoting favors the runtime type system, and provides a more complex programming model with much more limited reach. This essential difference is the primary factor in determining which technology to use. However, there are a wide range of other design factors, including transport protocols, host processes, security, performance, state management, and support for transactions to consider as well.

Security
Since ASP.NET Web services rely on HTTP, they integrate with the standard Internet security infrastructure. ASP.NET leverages the security features available with IIS to provide strong support for standard HTTP authentication schemes including Basic, Digest, digital certificates, and even Microsoft® .NET Passport. (You can also use Windows Integrated authentication, but only for clients in a trusted domain.) One advantage of using the available HTTP authentication schemes is that no code change is required in a Web service; IIS performs authentication before the ASP.NET Web services are called. ASP.NET also provides support for .NET Passport-based authentication and other custom authentication schemes. ASP.NET supports access control based on target URLs, and by integrating with the .NET code access security (CAS) infrastructure. SSL can be used to ensure private communication over the wire.

Although these standard transport-level techniques to secure Web services are quite effective, they only go so far. In complex scenarios involving multiple Web services in different trust domains, you have to build custom ad hoc solutions. Microsoft and others are working on a set of security specifications that build on the extensibility of SOAP messages to offer message-level security capabilities. One of these is the XML Web Services Security Language (WS-Security), which defines a framework for message-level credential transfer, message integrity, and message confidentiality.

As noted in the previous section, the .NET Remoting plumbing does not secure cross-process invocations in the general case. A .NET Remoting endpoint hosted in IIS with ASP.NET can leverage all the same security features available to ASP.NET Web services, including support for secure communication over the wire using SSL. If you are using the TCP channel or the HTTP channel hosted in processes other than aspnet_wp.exe, you have to implement authentication, authorization and privacy mechanisms yourself.

One additional security concern is the ability to execute code from a semi-trusted environment without having to change the default security policy. ASP.NET Web Services client proxies work in these environments, but .NET Remoting proxies do not. In order to use a .NET Remoting proxy from a semi-trusted environment, you need a special serialization permission that is not given to code loaded from your intranet or the Internet by default. If you want to use a .NET Remoting client from within a semi-trusted environment, you have to alter the default security policy for code loaded from those zones. In situations where you are connecting to systems from clients running in a sandbox—like a downloaded Windows Forms application, for instance—ASP.NET Web Services are a simpler choice because security policy changes are not required.

Conceptually, what is the difference between early-binding and late-binding?
Early binding – Binding at Compile Time
Late Binding – Binding at Run Time

Early binding implies that the class of the called object is known at compile-time; late-binding implies that the class is not known until run-time, such as a call through an interface or via Reflection.

Early binding is the preferred method. It is the best performer because your application binds directly to the address of the function being called and there is no extra overhead in doing a run-time lookup. In terms of overall execution speed, it is at least twice as fast as late binding.

Early binding also provides type safety. When you have a reference set to the component's type library, Visual Basic provides IntelliSense support to help you code each function correctly. Visual Basic also warns you if the data type of a parameter or return value is incorrect, saving a lot of time when writing and debugging code.

Late binding is still useful in situations where the exact interface of an object is not known at design-time. If your application seeks to talk with multiple unknown servers or needs to invoke functions by name (using the Visual Basic 6.0 CallByName function for example) then you need to use late binding. Late binding is also useful to work around compatibility problems between multiple versions of a component that has improperly modified or adapted its interface between versions.

Dot Net Technology Que/Ans Set-3

21. What is Globalizationa and Localization ? Ans : Globalization is the process of creating an application that meets the needs of users from multiple cultures. It includes using the correct
currency, date and time format, calendar, writing direction, sorting rules, and other issues. Accommodating these cultural differences in an application is called localization.Using classes of System.Globalization namespace, you can set application's current culture.

This can be achieved by using any of the following 3 approaches.
      1.      Detect and redirect
      2.      Run-time adjustment
      3.      Using Satellite assemblies.

     
22. Whate are Resource Files ? How are they used in .NET? Ans : Resource files are the files containing data that is logically deployed with an application.These files can contain data in a number of formats including strings, images and persisted objects. It has the main advantage of If we store data in these files then we don't need to compile these if the data get changed. In .NET we basically require them storing culture specific informations by localizing application's resources. You can deploy your resources using satellite assemblies.

23. Difference between Dispose and Finallize method?

Ans : Finalize method is used to free the memory used by some unmanaged resources like window handles (HWND). It's similar to the destructor syntax in C#. The GC calls this method when it founds no more references to the object. But, In some cases we may need release the memory used by the resources explicitely.To release the memory explicitly we need to implement the Dispose method of IDisposable interface.

24. What is encapsulation ?

Ans : Encapsulation is the ability to hide the internal workings of an object's behavior and its data. For instance, let's say you have a object named Bike and this object has a method named start(). When you create an instance of a Bike object and call its start() method you are not worried about what happens to accomplish this, you just want to make sure the state of the bike is changed to 'running' afterwards. This kind of behavior hiding is encapsulation and it makes programming much easier.

25. How can you prevent your class to be inherated further?

Ans : By setting Sealed - Key word

 public sealed class Planet
 {
             //code goes here
 }

class Moon:Planet
 {
     //Not allowed as base class is sealed
 }

1.      What is GUID and why we need to use it and in what condition?

How this is created.

Ans : A GUID is a 128-bit integer (16 bytes) that can be used across all computers and networks wherever  a unique identifier is required. Such an identifier has a very low probability of being duplicated. Visual Studio .NET IDE has a utility under the tools menu to generate GUIDs.

27. Why do you need to serialize.?

We need to serialize the object,if you want to pass object from one  computer/application domain to another.Process of converting complex objects into stream of bytes that can be persisted or  transported.Namespace for serialization is System.Runtime.Serialization.The  ISerializable interface allows you to make any class Serializable..NET framework features 2 serializing method.
1.Binary Serialization 

2.XML Serialization

28. What is inline schema, how does it works? Ans : Schemas can be included inside of XML file is called Inline Schemas.This is useful  when it is inconvenient to physically seprate the schema and the XML document.A  schema is an XML document that defines the structure, constraints, data types, and  relationships of the elements that constitute the data contained inside the XML  document or in another XML document.Schema can be an external file which uses the  XSD or XDR extension called external schema. Inline schema can take place even when validation is turned off.

29. Describe the advantages of writing a managed code application instead of unmanaged one. What's involved in certain piece of code being managed?

"Advantage includes automatic garbage collection,memory management,security,type checking,versioning

Managed code is compiled for the .NET run-time environment. It runs in the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which is the heart of the .NET Framework. The CLR provides services such as security,
memory management, and cross-language integration. Managed applications written to take advantage of the features of the CLR perform more efficiently and safely, and take better advantage of developers existing expertise in languages that support the .NET Framework.

Unmanaged code includes all code written before the .NET Framework was introduced—this includes code written to use COM, native Win32, and Visual Basic 6. Because it does not run inside the .NET environment, unmanaged code cannot make use of any .NET managed facilities."

30. What are multicast delegates ? give me an example ? Ans : Delegate that can have more than one element in its invocation List.

using System;
namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate
{
  class MultiCast
  {
    public delegate string strMultiCast(string s);
  }
}

MainClass defines the static methods having same signature as delegate.
using System;

namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate
{

  public class MainClass
  {
    public MainClass()
    {
    }

    public static string Jump(string s)
    {
      Console.WriteLine("Jump");
      return String.Empty;
    }

    public static string Run(string s)
    {
      Console.WriteLine("Run");
      return String.Empty;
    }

    public static string Walk(string s)
    {
      Console.WriteLine("Walk");
      return String.Empty;     
    }
  }
}

The Main class:

using System;
using System.Threading;
namespace SampleMultiCastDelegate
{

  public class MainMultiCastDelegate
  {
    public static void Main()
    {
      MultiCast.strMultiCast  Run,Walk,Jump;

      MultiCast.strMultiCast    myDelegate;

       ///here mydelegate used the Combine method of System.MulticastDelegate
      ///and the delegates combine 
      myDelegate=(MultiCast.strMultiCast)System.Delegate.Combine(Run,Walk);
              
    }
  }
}