The principal inventors of the C# programming language wereAnders Hejlsberg, Scott Wiltamuth, and Peter Golde fromMicrosoft.[17] It was first widely distributed in July 2000[17] and was later approved as aninternational standard byEcma (ECMA-334) in 2002 andISO/IEC (ISO/IEC 23270 and 20619[c]) in 2003. Microsoft introduced C# along with.NET Framework and MicrosoftVisual Studio, both of which are technically speaking,closed-source. At the time, Microsoft had no open-source products. Four years later, in 2004, afree and open-source project called MicrosoftMono began, providing across-platformcompiler andruntime environment for the C# programming language. A decade later, Microsoft releasedVisual Studio Code (code editor),Roslyn (compiler), andthe unified .NET platform (software framework), all of which support C# and are free, open-source, and cross-platform. Mono also joined Microsoft but was not merged into .NET.
As of January 2025,[update] the most recent stable version of the language is C# 13.0, which was released in 2024 in .NET 9.0[18][19]
The Ecma standard lists these design goals for C#:[17]
The language is intended to be a simple, modern, general-purpose,object-oriented programming language.
The language, and implementations thereof, should provide support for software engineering principles such asstrong type checking, arraybounds checking,[20]: 58–59 detection of attempts to useuninitialized variables, and automaticgarbage collection.[20]: 563 Software robustness, durability, and programmer productivity are important.
The language is intended for use in developingsoftware components suitable fordeployment in distributed environments.
C# is intended to be suitable for writing applications for both hosted andembedded systems, ranging from the very large that use sophisticatedoperating systems, down to the very small having dedicated functions.
Although C# applications are intended to be economical with regard to memory andprocessing power requirements, the language was not intended to compete directly on performance and size with C or assembly language.[21]
During the development of the.NET Framework, theclass libraries were originally written using amanaged code compiler system namedSimple Managed C (SMC).[22][23] In January 1999,Anders Hejlsberg formed a team to build a new language at the time called COOL, which stood for "C-like Object Oriented Language".[24] Microsoft had considered keeping the name "COOL(C-like Object Oriented Language)" as the final name of the language, but chose not to do so for trademark reasons. By the time the .NET project was publicly announced at the July 2000Professional Developers Conference, the language had been renamed C#, and the class libraries andASP.NET runtime were ported to C#.
Hejlsberg is C#'s principal designer and lead architect at Microsoft, and was previously involved with the design ofTurbo Pascal,EmbarcaderoDelphi (formerlyCodeGear Delphi,Inprise Delphi andBorland Delphi), andVisual J++. In interviews and technical papers, he has stated that flaws[25] in most major programming languages (e.g.C++,Java,Delphi, andSmalltalk) drove the fundamentals of theCommon Language Runtime (CLR), which, in turn, drove the design of the C# language.
James Gosling, who created theJava programming language in 1994, andBill Joy, a co-founder ofSun Microsystems, the originator of Java, called C# an "imitation" of Java; Gosling further said that "[C# is] sort of Java with reliability, productivity and security deleted."[26][27] In July 2000, Hejlsberg said that C# is "not a Java clone" and is "much closer to C++" in its design.[28]
Since the release of C# 2.0 in November 2005, the C# and Java languages have evolved on increasingly divergent trajectories, becoming two quite different languages. One of the first major departures came with the addition ofgenerics to both languages, with vastly different implementations. C# uses ofreification to provide "first-class" generic objects that can be used like any other class, withcode generation performed at class-load time.[29]Furthermore, C# has added several major features to accommodate functional-style programming, culminating in theLINQ extensions released with C# 3.0 and its supporting framework oflambda expressions,extension methods, andanonymous types.[30] These features enable C# programmers to use functional programming techniques, such asclosures, when it is advantageous to their application. The LINQ extensions and the functional imports help developers reduce the amount ofboilerplate code included in common tasks such as querying a database, parsing an XML file, or searching through a data structure, shifting the emphasis onto the actual program logic to help improve readability and maintainability.[31]
C# used to have amascot called Andy (named afterAnders Hejlsberg). It was retired on January 29, 2004.[32]
C# was originally submitted to the ISO/IEC JTC 1 subcommitteeSC 22 for review,[33] under ISO/IEC 23270:2003,[34] was withdrawn and was then approved under ISO/IEC 23270:2006.[35] The 23270:2006 is withdrawn under 23270:2018 and approved with this version.[36]
Microsoft first used the name C# in 1988 for a variant of the C language designed for incremental compilation.[37] That project was not completed, and the name was later reused.
The name "C sharp" was inspired by the musical notation whereby asharp symbol indicates that the written note should be made asemitone higher inpitch.[38]This is similar to the language name ofC++, where "++" indicates that a variable should be incremented by 1 after being evaluated. The sharp symbol also resembles aligature of four "+" symbols (in a two-by-two grid), further implying that the language is an increment of C++.[39]
Due to technical limits of display (standard fonts, browsers, etc.), and mostkeyboard layouts lacking a sharp symbol (U+266F♯MUSIC SHARP SIGN (♯)), thenumber sign (U+0023#NUMBER SIGN (#)) was chosen to approximate the sharp symbol in the written name of the programming language.[40]This convention is reflected in the ECMA-334 C# Language Specification.[17]
The "sharp" suffix has been used by a number of other Microsoft.NET compatible/compliant languages that are variants of existing languages, includingJ# (a .NET language also designed by Microsoft that is derived fromJava 1.1),A# (fromAda), and thefunctional programming languageF#.[41] The original implementation ofEiffel for .NET was calledEiffel#,[42] a name retired since the fullEiffel language is now supported. The suffix has also been used forlibraries, such asGtk# (a .NETwrapper forGTK and otherGNOME libraries) andCocoa# (a wrapper forCocoa).
Development of the text for standards (beginning with C# 6) is done onGitHub. C# 7 was submitted toEcma and approved in December 2023. As of January 2024, the standard for C# 8 is currently under development, referencing theapproved language proposals.
The core syntax of the C# language is similar to that of other C-style languages such as C, Objective-C, C++ and Java, particularly:
Semicolons are used to denote the end of a statement.
Curly brackets are used to group statements. Statements are commonly grouped into methods (functions), methods into classes, and classes intonamespaces.
Square brackets are used witharrays, both to declare them and to get a value at a given index in one of them.
"class", "int" and "void" are used to define large-scale (usually main) program functions in scripts most of the time in C-style computer programming languages.
By design, C# is the programming language that most directly reflects the underlyingCommon Language Infrastructure (CLI).[70] Most of its intrinsic types correspond to value-types implemented by theCLI (Common Language Infrastructure) framework. However, the language specification does not state the code generation requirements of the compiler: that is, it does not state that a C# compiler must target aCommon Language Runtime (CLR), or generateCommon Intermediate Language (CIL), or generate any other specific format. Some C# compilers can also generate machine code like traditional compilers of Objective-C, C, C++, Assembly andFortran.[71][72]
C# supports strongly, implicitly typed variable declarations with the keywordvar,[16]: 470 and implicitly typed arrays with the keywordnew[] followed by a collection initializer.[16]: 80 [20]: 58
Its type system is split into two families: Value types, like the built-in numeric types and user-defined structs, which are automatically handed over as copies when used as parameters, and reference types, including arrays, instances of classes, and strings, which only hand over a pointer to the respective object. Due to their special handling of the equality operator and theirimmutability, strings will nevertheless behave as if they were values, for all practical purposes. You can even use them ascase labels. Where necessary, value types will beboxed automatically.[73]
C# supports a strictBoolean data type,bool. Statements that take conditions, such aswhile andif, require an expression of a type that evaluates to thetrue boolean value. While C++ also has a Boolean type, it can be freely converted to and from integers, and expressions such asif (a) require only thata is convertible to bool, allowinga to be an int, or a pointer. C# disallows this "integer meaning true or false" approach, on the grounds that forcing programmers to use expressions that return exactlybool can prevent certain types of programming mistakes such asif (a = b) (use of assignment= instead of equality==).
C# is moretype safe than C++. The onlyimplicit conversions by default are those that are considered safe, such as widening of integers. This is enforced at compile-time, duringJIT, and, in some cases, at runtime. No implicit conversions occur between Booleans and integers, nor between enumeration members and integers (except for literal 0, which can be implicitly converted to any enumerated type). Any user-defined conversion must be explicitly marked as explicit or implicit, unlike C++copy constructors and conversion operators, which are both implicit by default.
C# has explicit support forcovariance and contravariance in generic types,[16]: 144 [20]: 23 unlike C++ which has some degree of support for contravariance simply through the semantics of return types on virtual methods.
The C# language does not allow for global variables or functions. All methods and members must be declared within classes. Static members of public classes can substitute for global variables and functions.
Local variables cannotshadow variables of the enclosing block, unlike C and C++, but may shadow type-level names.
Reflection is supported through .NET APIs, which enable scenarios such as type metadata inspection and dynamic method invocation.
Expression trees[74] represent code as anabstract syntax tree, where each node is an expression that can be inspected or executed. This enables dynamic modification of executable code at runtime. Expression trees introduce somehomoiconicity to the language.
Attributes, in C# parlance, aremetadata that can be attached to types, members, or entireassemblies, equivalent toannotations in Java. Attributes are accessible both to the compiler and to code through reflection, allowing them to adjust their behaviour.[75] Many of the native attributes duplicate the functionality of GCC's and VisualC++'s platform-dependent preprocessor directives.[citation needed]
System.Reflection.Emit namespace,[76] which contains classes that emit metadata andCIL (types, assemblies, etc.) atruntime.
The .NET Compiler Platform (Roslyn) provides API access to language compilation services, allowing for the compilation of C# code from within .NET applications. It exposes APIs for syntactic (lexical) analysis of code,semantic analysis, dynamic compilation to CIL, and code emission.[77]
Source generators,[78] a feature of the Roslyn C# compiler, enable compile time metaprogramming. During the compilation process, developers can inspect the code being compiled with the compiler'sAPI and pass additional generated C# source code to be compiled.
Amethod in C# is a member of a class that can be invoked as a function (a sequence of instructions), rather than the mere value-holding capability of afield (i.e.class orinstance variable).[79] As in other syntactically similar languages, such asC++ andANSI C, the signature of a method is a declaration comprising in order: any optional accessibility keywords (such asprivate), the explicit specification of its return type (such asint, or the keywordvoid if no value is returned), the name of the method, and finally, a parenthesized sequence of comma-separated parameter specifications, each consisting of a parameter's type, its formal name and optionally, a default value to be used whenever none is provided. Different from most other languages,call-by-reference parameters have to be marked both at the function definition and at the calling site, and you can choose betweenref andout, the latter allowing handing over an uninitialized variable which will have a definite value on return.[80] Additionally, you can specify avariable-sized argument list by applying theparams keyword to the last parameter.[81] Certain specific kinds of methods, such as those that simply get or set a field's value by returning or assigning it, do not require an explicitly stated full signature, but in the general case, the definition of a class includes the full signature declaration of its methods.[82]
Like C++, and unlike Java, C# programmers must use the scope modifier keywordvirtual to allow methods to beoverridden by subclasses. Unlike C++, you have to explicitly specify the keywordoverride when doing so.[83] This is supposed to avoid confusion between overriding and newly overloading a function (i.e. hiding the former implementation). To do the latter, you have to specify thenew keyword.[84] You can use the keywordsealed to disallow further overrides for individual methods or whole classes.[85]
Extension methods in C# allow programmers to use static methods as if they were methods from a class's method table, allowing programmers to virtually add instance methods to a class that they feel should exist on that kind of objects (and instances of the respective derived classes).[16]: 103–105 [20]: 202–203
The typedynamic allows for run-time method binding, allowing for JavaScript-like method calls and run-timeobject composition.[16]: 114–118
C# has support for strongly-typedfunction pointers via the keyworddelegate. Like theQt framework'spseudo-C++signal andslot, C# has semantics specifically surrounding publish-subscribe style events, though C# uses delegates to do so. Unlike fields,event variables can be part of an interface, because they technically consist of two default functions to add and remove to-be-called delegates.
C# offers Java-likesynchronized method calls, via the attribute[MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.Synchronized)], and has support formutually-exclusive locks via the keywordlock.
C# supports classes withproperties. The properties can be simple accessor functions with a backing field, or implement arbitrary getter and setter functions. A property is read-only if there's no setter. Like with fields, there can be class and instance properties. The underlying methods can bevirtual orabstract like any other method.[82]
A C#namespace provides the same level of code isolation as a Javapackage or a C++namespace, with rules and features very similar to apackage. Namespaces can be imported with the "using" syntax.[87]
In C#, memory address pointers can only be used within blocks specifically marked asunsafe,[88] and programs with unsafe code need appropriate permissions to run. Most object access is done through safe object references, which always either point to a "live" object or have the well-definednull value; it is impossible to obtain a reference to a "dead" object (one that has been garbage collected), or to an arbitrary block of memory. An unsafe pointer can point to an instance of an unmanaged value type that does not contain any references to objects subject to garbage collections such as class instances, arrays or strings. Code that is not marked as unsafe can still store and manipulate pointers through theSystem.IntPtr type, but it cannot dereference them.
Managed memory cannot be explicitly freed; instead, it is automatically garbage collected. Garbage collection addresses the problem ofmemory leaks by freeing the programmer of responsibility for releasing memory that is no longer needed in most cases. Code that retains references to objects longer than is required can still experience higher memory usage than necessary, however once the final reference to an object is released the memory is available for garbage collection.
A range of standard exceptions are available to programmers. Methods in standard libraries regularly throw system exceptions in some circumstances and the range of exceptions thrown is normally documented. Custom exception classes can be defined for classes allowing handling to be put in place for particular circumstances as needed.[89]
The syntax for handling exceptions is the following:
try{// something}catch(Exceptionex){// if error do this}finally{// always executes, regardless of error occurrence}
Most of the time people call this a "try-catch" code block, because of the "try" and "catch" functions being used and accessible on all C# versions.
Depending on your plans, the "finally" part can be left out. If inspecting the error details is not required, the(Exception ex) parameter can be omitted as well. Also, there can be several "catch" parts handling different kinds of exceptions.[90]
Checked exceptions are not present in C# (in contrast to Java). This has been a conscious decision based on the issues of scalability and version management.[91]
UnlikeC++, C# does not supportmultiple inheritance, although a class can implement any number of "interfaces" (fully abstract classes). This was a design decision by the language's lead architect to avoid complications and to simplify architectural requirements throughoutCLI.
When implementing multiple interfaces that contain a method with the same name and taking parameters of the same types in the same order (i.e. the samesignature), similar toJava, C# allows both a single method to cover all interfaces and if necessary specific methods for each interface.
Since version 2.0, C# offersparametric polymorphism, i.e. classes with arbitrary or constrained type parameters, e.g.List<T>, a variable-sized array which only can contain elements of typeT. There are certain kinds of constraints you can specify for the type parameters: Has to be type X (or one derived from it), has to implement a certain interface, has to be a reference type, has to be a value type, has to implement a public parameterlessconstructor. Most of them can be combined, and you can specify any number of interfaces.[94][95]
C# has the ability to utilizeLINQ through the .NET Framework. A developer can query a variety of data sources, provided theIEnumerable<T> interface is implemented on the object. This includesXML documents, anADO.NET dataset, andSQL databases.[96]
UsingLINQ in C# brings advantages likeIntelliSense support, strong filtering capabilities, type safety with compile error checking ability, and consistency for querying data over a variety of sources.[97] There are several different language structures that can be utilized with C# and LINQ and they are query expressions, lambda expressions, anonymous types, implicitly typed variables, extension methods, and object initializers.[98]
LINQ has two syntaxes: query syntax and method syntax. However, the compiler always converts the query syntax to method syntax at compile time.[99]
usingSystem.Linq;varnumbers=newint[]{5,10,8,3,6,12};// Query syntax (SELECT num FROM numbers WHERE num % 2 = 0 ORDER BY num)varnumQuery1=fromnuminnumberswherenum%2==0orderbynumselectnum;// Method syntaxvarnumQuery2=numbers.Where(num=>num%2==0).OrderBy(n=>n);
C# has aunified type system. This unified type system is calledCommon Type System (CTS).[108]: Part 2, Chapter 4: The Type System
A unified type system implies that all types, including primitives such as integers, are subclasses of theSystem.Object class. For example, every type inherits aToString() method.
CTS separates data types into two categories:[108]
Reference types
Value types
Instances of value types neither have referential identity nor referential comparison semantics. Equality and inequality comparisons for value types compare the actual data values within the instances, unless the corresponding operators are overloaded. Value types are derived fromSystem.ValueType, always have a default value, and can always be created and copied. Some other limitations on value types are that they cannot derive from each other (but can implement interfaces) and cannot have an explicit default (parameterless) constructor because they already have an implicit one which initializes all contained data to the type-dependent default value (0, null, or alike). Examples of value types are all primitive types, such asint (a signed 32-bit integer),float (a 32-bit IEEE floating-point number),char (a 16-bit Unicode code unit),decimal (fixed-point numbers useful for handling currency amounts), andSystem.DateTime (identifies a specific point in time with nanosecond precision). Other examples areenum (enumerations) andstruct (user defined structures).
In contrast, reference types have the notion of referential identity, meaning that each instance of a reference type is inherently distinct from every other instance, even if the data within both instances is the same. This is reflected in default equality and inequality comparisons for reference types, which test for referential rather than structural equality, unless the corresponding operators are overloaded (such as the case forSystem.String). Some operations are not always possible, such as creating an instance of a reference type, copying an existing instance, or performing a value comparison on two existing instances. Nevertheless, specific reference types can provide such services by exposing a public constructor or implementing a corresponding interface (such asICloneable orIComparable). Examples of reference types areobject (the ultimate base class for all other C# classes),System.String (a string of Unicode characters), andSystem.Array (a base class for all C# arrays).
Both type categories are extensible with user-defined types.
Boxing is the operation of converting a value-type object into a value of a corresponding reference type.[108] Boxing in C# is implicit.
Unboxing is the operation of converting a value of a reference type (previously boxed) into a value of a value type.[108] Unboxing in C# requires an explicittype cast. A boxed object of type T can only be unboxed to a T (or a nullable T).[109]
Example:
intfoo=42;// Value type.objectbar=foo;// foo is boxed to bar.intfoo2=(int)bar;// Unboxed back to value type.
The C# specification details a minimum set of types and class libraries that the compiler expects to have available. In practice, C# is most often used with some implementation of theCommon Language Infrastructure (CLI), which is standardized as ECMA-335Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).
In addition to the standard CLI specifications, there are many commercial and community class libraries that build on top of the .NET framework libraries to provide additional functionality.[110]
The following is a very simple C# program, a version of the classic "Hello world" example using thetop-level statements feature introduced in C# 9:[111]
System.Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
For code written as C# 8 or lower, the entry point logic of a program must be written in a Main method inside a type:
This code will display this text in the console window:
Hello, world!
Each line has a purpose:
usingSystem;
The above line imports all types in theSystem namespace. For example, theConsole class used later in the source code is defined in theSystem namespace, meaning it can be used without supplying the full name of the type (which includes the namespace).
// A version of the classic "Hello World" program
This line is a comment; it describes and documents the code for the programmer(s).
classProgram
Above is aclass definition for theProgram class. Everything that follows between the pair of braces describes that class.
{...}
The curly brackets demarcate the boundaries of a code block. In this first instance, they are marking the start and end of theProgram class.
staticvoidMain()
This declares the class member method where the program begins execution. The .NET runtime calls theMain method. Unlike inJava, theMain method does not need thepublic keyword, which tells the compiler that the method can be called from anywhere by any class.[112] WritingstaticvoidMain(string[]args) is equivalent to writingprivatestaticvoidMain(string[]args). Thestatic keyword makes the method accessible without an instance ofProgram. Each console application'sMain entry point must be declaredstatic otherwise the program would require an instance ofProgram, but any instance would require a program. To avoid that irresolvablecircular dependency, C# compilers processingconsole applications (like that above) report an error if there is nostaticMain method. Thevoid keyword declares thatMain has noreturn value. (Note, however, that short programs can be written usingTop Level Statements introduced in C# 9, as mentioned earlier.)
Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
This line writes the output.Console is a static class in theSystem namespace. It provides an interface to the standardinput/output, and error streams for console applications. The program calls theConsole methodWriteLine, which displays on the console a line with the argument, the string"Hello, world!".
With .NET 2.0 and C# 2.0, the community got more flexible collections than those in .NET 1.x. In the absence of generics, developers had to use collections such as ArrayList to store elements as objects of unspecified kind, which incurred performance overhead when boxing/unboxing/type-checking the contained items.
Generics introduced a massive new feature in .NET that allowed developers to create type-safe data structures. This shift is particularly important in the context of converting legacy systems, where updating to generics can significantly enhance performance and maintainability by replacing outdated data structures with more efficient, type-safe alternatives.[113]
In August 2001,Microsoft,Hewlett-Packard andIntel co-sponsored the submission of specifications for C# as well as theCommon Language Infrastructure (CLI) to the standards organizationEcma International. In December 2001, ECMA released ECMA-334C# Language Specification. C# became anISO/IEC standard in 2003 (ISO/IEC 23270:2003 -Information technology — Programming languages — C#). ECMA had previously adopted equivalent specifications as the 2nd edition of C#, in December 2002. In June 2005, ECMA approved edition 3 of the C# specification, and updated ECMA-334. Additions included partial classes, anonymous methods, nullable types, andgenerics (somewhat similar to C++templates). In July 2005, ECMA submitted to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22, via the latter's Fast-Track process, the standards and related TRs. This process usually takes 6–9 months.
Microsoft initially agreed not to sue open-source developers for violating patents in non-profit projects for the part of the framework that is covered by theOpen Specification Promise.[114] Microsoft has also agreed not to enforce patents relating toNovell products against Novell's paying customers[115] with the exception of a list of products that do not explicitly mention C#, .NET or Novell's implementation of .NET (The Mono Project).[116] However, Novell maintained that Mono does not infringe any Microsoft patents.[117] Microsoft also made a specific agreement not to enforce patent rights related to theMoonlight browser plugin, which depends on Mono, provided it is obtained through Novell.[118]
A decade later, Microsoft began developing free, open-source, and cross-platform tooling for C#, namelyVisual Studio Code,.NET Core, andRoslyn. Mono joined Microsoft as a project ofXamarin, a Microsoft subsidiary.
Microsoft has developedopen-source reference C# compilers and tools. The first compiler,Roslyn, compiles into intermediate language (IL), and the second one, RyuJIT,[119] is a JIT (just-in-time) compiler, which is dynamic and does on-the-fly optimization and compiles the IL into native code for the front-end of the CPU.[120] RyuJIT is open source and written in C++.[121] Roslyn is entirely written inmanaged code (C#), has been opened up and functionality surfaced as APIs. It is thus enabling developers to create refactoring and diagnostics tools.[4][122] Two branches of official implementation are .NET Framework (closed-source, Windows-only) and .NET Core (open-source, cross-platform); they eventually converged into one open-source implementation: .NET 5.0.[123] At .NET Framework 4.6, a new JIT compiler replaced the former.[119][124]
Other C# compilers (some of which include an implementation of theCommon Language Infrastructure and .NET class libraries):
Mono, a Microsoft-sponsored project provides an open-source C# compiler, a complete open-source implementation of the CLI (including the required framework libraries as they appear in the ECMA specification,) and a nearly complete implementation of the NET class libraries up to .NET Framework 3.5.
TheDotGNU project (now discontinued) also provided an open-source C# compiler, a nearly complete implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure including the required framework libraries as they appear in the ECMA specification, and subset of some of the remaining Microsoft proprietary .NET class libraries up to .NET 2.0 (those not documented or included in the ECMA specification, but included in Microsoft's standard .NET Framework distribution).
TheUnity game engine uses C# as its primary scripting language. TheGodot game engine has implemented an optional C# module due to a donation of $24,000 from Microsoft.[125]
^By convention, anumber sign is used for the second character in normal text; in artistic representations, sometimes a truesharp sign is used: C♯. However theECMA 334 standard states: "The name C# is written as the LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C (U+0043) followed by the NUMBER SIGN # (U+0023)."
^Language versions 1.0, 2.0, and 5.0 are available as ISO/IEC 23270. Beginning with version 7.0, the specification is available as ISO/IEC 20619
^The Microsoft C# 2.0 specification document only contains the new 2.0 features. For older features, use the 1.2 specification above.
^abNaugler, David (May 2007). "C# 2.0 for C++ and Java programmer: conference workshop".Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges.22 (5).Although C# has been strongly influenced by Java it has also been strongly influenced by C++ and is best viewed as a descendant of both C++ and Java.
^Hamilton, Naomi (October 1, 2008)."The A-Z of Programming Languages: C#".Computerworld. Archived fromthe original on March 24, 2010. RetrievedFebruary 12, 2010.We all stand on the shoulders of giants here and every language builds on what went before it so we owe a lot to C, C++, Java, Delphi, all of these other things that came before us. (Anders Hejlsberg)
^Borenszweig, Ary (June 14, 2016)."Crystal 0.18.0 released!".Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. RetrievedAugust 7, 2017.It's heavily inspired by Ruby, and other languages (like C#, Go and Python).
^Lattner, Chris (June 3, 2014)."Chris Lattner's Homepage". Chris Lattner.Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. RetrievedMay 12, 2020.The Swift language is the product of tireless effort from a team of language experts, documentation gurus, compiler optimization ninjas, and an incredibly important internal dogfooding group who provided feedback to help refine and battle-test ideas. Of course, it also greatly benefited from the experiences hard-won by many other languages in the field, drawing ideas from Objective-C, Rust, Haskell, Ruby, Python, C#, CLU, and far too many others to list.
^Hejlsberg, Anders; Torgersen, Mads (April 30, 2007)."Overview of C# 3.0".Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft.Archived from the original on June 25, 2014. RetrievedJune 11, 2014.
^LakshanF; agocke; Rick-Anderson; et al. (September 12, 2023)."Native AOT deployment overview - .NET".learn.microsoft.com.Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. RetrievedOctober 27, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Lippert, Eric (March 19, 2009)."Representation and Identity".Fabulous Adventures In Coding. Blogs.msdn.com.Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. RetrievedOctober 4, 2012.
^"Framework Libraries".Microsoft Learn. April 19, 2023.Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. RetrievedJuly 14, 2019.
^"Patent Cooperation Agreement - Microsoft & Novell Interoperability Collaboration".Microsoft. November 2, 2006. Archived fromthe original on May 17, 2009. RetrievedJuly 5, 2009.Microsoft, on behalf of itself and its Subsidiaries (collectively "Microsoft"), hereby covenants not to sue Novell's Customers and Novell's Subsidiaries' Customers for infringement under Covered Patents of Microsoft on account of such a Customer's use of specific copies of a Covered Product as distributed by Novell or its Subsidiaries (collectively "Novell") for which Novell has received Revenue (directly or indirectly) for such specific copies; provided the foregoing covenant is limited to use by such Customer (i) of such specific copies that are authorized by Novell in consideration for such Revenue, and (ii) within the scope authorized by Novell in consideration for such Revenue.
^"Covenant to Downstream Recipients of Moonlight - Microsoft & Novell Interoperability Collaboration".Microsoft. September 28, 2007. Archived fromthe original on September 23, 2010. RetrievedMarch 8, 2008."Downstream Recipient" means an entity or individual that uses for its intended purpose a Moonlight Implementation obtained directly from Novell or through an Intermediate Recipient... Microsoft reserves the right to update (including discontinue) the foregoing covenant... "Moonlight Implementation" means only those specific portions of Moonlight 1.0 or Moonlight 1.1 that run only as a plug-in to a browser on a Personal Computer and are not licensed under GPLv3 or a Similar License.
