What is an Intermediate language?

Assemblies are made up of IL code modules and the metadata that describes them. Although programs may be compiled via an IDE or the command line, in fact, they are simply translated into IL, not machine code. The actual machine code is not generated until the function that requires it is called. This is the just-in-time, or JIT, compilation feature of .NET. JIT compilation happens at runtime for a variety of reasons, one of the most ambitious being Microsoft's desire for cross-platform .NET adoption. If a CLR is built for another operating system (UNIX or Mac), the same assemblies will run in addition to the Microsoft platforms. The hope is that .NET assemblies are write-once-run-anywhere applications. This is a .NET feature that works behind-the-scenes, ensuring that developers are not limited to writing applications for one single line of products. No one has demonstrated whether or not this promise will ever truly materialize.
CTS/CLS
The MSIL Instruction Set Specification is included with the .NET SDK, along with the IL Assembly Language Programmers Reference. If a developer wants to write custom .NET programming languages, these are the necessary specifications and syntax. The CTS and CLS define the types and syntaxes that every .NET language needs to embrace. An application may not expose these features, but it must consider them when communicating through IL.
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samiksc

  • Jan 16th, 2006
 

MSIL is the intermediate language which is platform independent. High level language compilers for .Net languages compile the high level code into IL which is not hardware specific.

The use of IL allows integration of code written in different .Net languages which can be linked into one assembly. All lang compilers would produce IL code which is independent of the high level languages used.

IL uses common type system to bring data types of all .Net languages to a common platform.

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