what's a NET framework?

Why do I need it? Why do I want it? What does it do? How come I’ve never needed it before?

The .Net framework is a Windows component. It has been released after Windows XP was released so it’s not included in the standard installation of Windows.
Starting from version 4.0.5 n-Track uses some .Net framework services so the n-Track setup complains if it doesn’t find the .Net framework on the computer.
The .Net framework can be downloaded for free from microsoft.com

Hi Flavio:
Will you be including that information on your list of requirments for windows based DAW’s? I know the list is posted on a page on your site… somewhere up here…

Thanks, if you could do that… If it isn’t already there…

Bill…

Quote (Gizmo @ April 22 2005,21:16)
Why do I need it? Why do I want it? What does it do? How come I've never needed it before?

The .NET framework is Bill's way of ensuring that developers only work on Windows computers and develop solely for the Windows platform... and flipping the middle finger at everyone else!

:D :D :D

.NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems, and devices through software. Integrated across the Microsoft platform, .NET technology provides the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. .NET-connected solutions enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile manner and help them realize the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device.
The Microsoft platform includes everything a business needs to develop and deploy a Web service-connected IT architecture: servers to host Web services, development tools to create them, applications to use them, and a worldwide network of more than 35,000 Microsoft Certified Partner organizations to provide any help you need.
What Are Web Services?
If you ask a developer what Web services are, you’ll hear something like, "self-describing software modules, semantically encapsulating discrete functionality, wrapped in and accessible via standard Internet communication protocols like XML and SOAP."
But if you ask a business leader who has implemented Web service-based solutions, you’ll get a different kind of answer. You’ll hear that Web services are an approach that helps the business connect with its customers, partners, and employees. They enable the business to extend existing services to new customers. They help the business work more efficiently with its partners and suppliers. They unlock information so it can flow to every employee who needs it. They reduce development time and expense for new projects. You’ll hear less about what Web services are and more about what they enable the business to do.
Benefits of Web Services
By enabling applications to share data across different hardware platforms and operating systems, Web services provide many benefits, including:

Opening the door to new business opportunities by making it easy to connect with partners.

Delivering dramatically more personal, integrated experiences to users through the new breed of smart devices—including PCs.

Saving time and money by cutting development time.

Increasing revenue streams by enabling businesses to easily make their own Web services available to others.
Connecting Applications Through Web Services
Web services are revolutionizing how applications talk to other applications—or, more broadly, how computers talk to other computers—by providing a universal data format that lets data be easily adapted or transformed. Based on XML, the universal language of Internet data exchange, Web services can communicate across platforms and operating systems, regardless of the programming language in which the applications are written.
Each Web service is a discrete unit of code that handles a limited set of tasks. However, although Web services remain independent of each other, they can loosely link themselves into a collaborating group that performs a particular task.
Example: Your Inventory System
Say you have a stand-alone inventory system. If you don’t connect it to anything else, it’s not as valuable as it could be. The system can track inventory, but not much more. You may have to enter inventory information twice—once in your accounting system and once in your customer relationship management system. The inventory system may be unable to automatically place orders to suppliers. The benefits of such an inventory system are diminished by high overhead costs.
However, if you connect your inventory system to your accounting system, it gets more interesting. Now, whenever you buy or sell something, the implications for your inventory and your cash flow can be tracked in one step. If you go further, and connect your warehouse management system, customer ordering system, supplier ordering systems, and your shipping company, suddenly that inventory management system is worth a lot. You can do end-to-end management of your business while dealing with each transaction only once, instead of once for every system it affects. That’s a lot less work—and a lot less opportunity for errors.
These connections can be made easily using Web services. Web services allow the applications to share information through the Internet, regardless of the operating system or back-end software that the application is using.
Web Services Use Industry-Standard Protocols
Web services also make it possible for developers to choose between building all pieces of their applications, or consuming (using) Web services created by others. This means that an individual company doesn’t have to supply every piece for a complete solution. The ability to expose (announce and offer) your own Web services creates new revenue streams for your company.
Web services are invoked over the Internet by means of industry-standard protocols including SOAP; XML; and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). They are defined through public standards organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
SOAP is an XML-based messaging technology standardized by the W3C, which specifies all the necessary rules for locating Web services, integrating them into applications, and communicating between them. UDDI is a public registry, offered at no cost, where one can publish and inquire about Web services.

Quote (Flavio Antonioli @ April 23 2005,07:46)
The .Net framework is a Windows component. It has been released after Windows XP was released so it's not included in the standard installation of Windows.
Starting from version 4.0.5 n-Track uses some .Net framework services so the n-Track setup complains if it doesn't find the .Net framework on the computer.
The .Net framework can be downloaded for free from microsoft.com

Hi Flavio,
I have been a registered (24 bit) user since ver 2.x. My current DAW is a WinXP system. All internet/networking programs were removed with XPLite. This configuration is so fast and stable that I will not consider going back to an interned enabled machine.

Does this mean my nTrack days are numbered? :(

In any case, thanks for the best 'bang for the buck' recording software on the planet!!

Regards, Jeff

Grazie, il sig. Antonioli. :)

(And if there’s no other reason for using n-track, then responses like this are worth it alone).

And thank you too Tom and others for your in depth explanations.

But, build 1811 works ok without NET.

And like Jeff, my DAW is not connected to a network, not even the Internet, so IE is disabled. If I download something on this PC I burn it to CDRW then transfer it across to my DAW.

Is this a feature users have asked for? And I still don’t see what benefit it is to me. (I have very slow dial-up, and I really need a very good reason to tie up my phone line for hours downloading something I can’t see any benefit in).

I would never try to criticise your decisions Flavio, but Band-in-a-box doesn’t need NET, Ableton live doesn’t, Fruity Loops doesn’t, so why does n-track need another piece of Microsoft crap all of a sudden?

Again, like Jeff, my DAW is a lean mean music machine, and I really don’t want anything I don’t actually need using up resources . :)

Former Member Gone and dcuny have bench work experiance with .NET and give great explinations on pg2 of thread: “Does n-track need .NET”, it appears to be a harmless script type tool to give windows the ability to read diffren’t programs that might be writtin in diffrent languages, aparently converting them to a common windows language, so programs written for mac will operate in windows! Someting like that! I got that impression from Flavios post, but when I saw the microsoft definition of .net I had to post it here just in case. Jason and dcuny explain it clearly in the other thread.
Sorry for any confusion!

Man, you guys sure can complicate things. .NEt is simply a programming platform like C, Java, C+, Delphi, Fortran, Visual Basic, Pascal, Php, etc. The .NET frame work is simply the run time… In order for your machine to understand how to run .NET applications, it must have the .NET runtime installed (also called the .NEt frame work). Windows comes with a C, Visual Basic, etc. runtime already installed therefore you folks have pretty much taken runtimes for granted. (In Linux you have to install most run times manually unless you get Fedora or something that installs if for you. Windows has spoiled you. :) ) You do not need to have an internet connection to use .Net just as you don’t need an internet connection to run an application written in C+. .Net simply lends itself well to internet application development (ASP, XML, Named Pipes etc.) or so Microsoft says (IMO, C# is a pig though.) It does not require the internet to work.

Quote (Bubbagump @ April 24 2005,15:44)
Man, you guys sure can complicate things.

:D

.net framework is absolutely harmless and if yer updating windows like you should be it’s prolly already on yer machine. My understanding is the next windows version will have it already baked in.

The one thing I would like to know is:

My DAW is not - nor will it ever be(!) - connected to the internet - or any other net, for that matter. Will I be able to install n-Track v4.05+ including .NET on my DAW, and will it work without any networking? I’ll be safe if it is just a platform language, like Java, but I’m still confused about this… ???

regards, Nils

Yes Nils,
Just save them to a disk, be sure to install .NET first then the later ntrack version. I’m under the impression that windows xp sp2 has .NET.

Don’t know if I’m stating the obvious, but .NET is just a name, and should not be confused with actually NEEDING the 'NET…

It’s like way in the beginning (on Win98PC’s) you needed some ‘complus’ (can’t even remember properly) component for N-Track to work.


W

Quote (Bubbagump @ April 24 2005,15:44)
You do not need to have an internet connection to use .Net just as you don't need an internet connection to run an application written in C+. .Net simply lends itself well to internet application development .... It does not require the internet to work.

Err, read above.
:D I still truely believe that they should have named it "WWW." just to avoid all the obvious confusion

Thanks for enlightening me with this info - n-Track truly rules… :D

regards, Nils

The truth is Flav wants to hijack our webcams so he can watch the doofus faces we make while trying to record a tricky part.

TG – don’t own a webcam. You should be glad!

PS I’m only kiddin’ here fellas…

So you DO own a web cam? ???