Q1) Why is C# initially compiled to IL and then at runtime JIT complied and run on top of a virtual machine(?). Or is it JIT complied to native machine code?
Q2) If the second is true (JIT complied to native machine code), then where is the .NET sandbox the code runs under?
Q3) In addition, why is the code compiled to IL in the first place. Why not simply compile to native machine code all the time? There is a tool from MS from this called ngen but why is that optional?
The IL is JIT'd (JIT = Just In Time) compiled to native machine code as the process runs.
The use of a virtual machine layer allows .NET to behave in a consistent manner across platforms (e.g. an int is always 32 bits regardless of whether you're running on a 32- or 64- bit machine, this is not the case with C++).
JIT compiling allows optimisations to dynamically tailor themselves to the code as it runs (e.g. apply more aggressive optimisations to bits of code that are called frequently, or make use of hardware instructions available on the specific machine like SSE2) which you can't do with a static compiler.
1. C# is compiled in to CIL (or IL) because it shares a platform with the rest of the .NET languages (which is why you can write a DLL in C# and use it in VB.NET or F# without hassle). The CLR will then JIT Compile the code into Native Machine Code.
.NET can also be run on multiple platforms (Mono on *NIX and OS X). If C# compiled to native code, this wouldn't be nearly as easy.
2. There is no sandbox.
3. Covered in the answer to #1
A1) This way it's platform agnostic (Windows, Linux, Mac) and it can also use specific optimizations for your current hardware. When it gets JIT compiled it's to machine code.
A2) The whole framework (the .NET framework) is all sandbox so all calls you might make through your app will go through the .NET framework sandbox.
A3) As in answer 1, it allows the .NET binary to work in different platforms and perform specific optimizations in the client machine on the fly.
Hi there.
You can use NGEN to create native versions of your .NET assemblies. Doing this means that the JIT does not have to do this at runtime.
.NET is compiled to IL first and then to native since the JIT was designed to optimize IL code for the current CPU the code is running under.
.NET code is compiled to IL for compatability. Since you can create code using C#, VB.NET, etc then the JIT needs a common instruction set (IL) in order to compile to native code. If the JIT had to be aware of languages, then the JIT would need to be updated when a new .NET language was released.
I'm not sure about the sandbox question, my best guess is that a .NET app runs with 3 application domains. One domain contains the .NET runtimes (mscorlib, system.dll, etc), another domain contains your .NET code, and I can't recall what the other domain's for. Check out http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780321584090
Cheers. Jas.
Compiled .Net code becomes IL which is an intermediate language in the exact same way as that of Javas' object code. Yes it is possible to generate native machine code using the NGen tool. NGen binds the resulting native image to the machine, so copying the ngen'd binary to a different system would not produce expected results. Compiling to intermediate code allows for runtime decisions that can be made that otherwise can't (easily) be made with a staticly-typed language like C++, it also allows the functioning of code on different hardware archetectures because the code then becomes descriptive in the sense that it also describes the intent of what should happen in a bit (eg 32 or 64)-agnostic way, as opposed to machine-specific code that only works on 32-bit systems or 64-bit systems but not both.
Also, NGen is optional because as I said it binds the binary to the system, it can be useful when you need the performance of compiled machine code with the flexibility of a dynamically typed language and you know that the binary won't be moving to a system it's not bound to.
A1) JIT compiles to native machine code
A2) In .net there is no such term as sandbox. There is AppDomains instead. And they runs as part of CLR (i.e. as part of executable process)
A3) NGen drawbacks from Jeffrey Richter:
NGen'd files can get out of sync. When the CLR loads an NGen'd file, it compares a number of characteristics about the previously compiled code and the current execution environment. If any of the characteristics don't match, the NGen'd file cannot be used, and the normal JIT compiler process is used instead.
Inferior Load-Time Performance (Rebasing/Binding). Assembly files are standard Windows PE files, and, as such, each contains a preferred base address. Many Windows developers are familiar with the issues surrounding base addresses and rebasing. When JIT compiling code, these issues aren't a concern because correct memory address references are calculated at run time.
Inferior Execution-Time Performance. When compiling code, NGen can't make as many assumptions about the execution environment as the JIT compiler can. This causes NGen.exe to produce inferior code. For example, NGen won't optimize the use of certain CPU instructions; it adds indirections for static field access because the actual address of the static fields isn't known until run time. NGen inserts code to call class constructors everywhere because it doesn't know the order in which the code will execute and if a class constructor has already been called.