What is an un/managed DLL? What is un/managed code?

Question

Could someone please explain?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Short answer: Code compiled without .NET framework (plain old DLL).

Answer 2

WRT to Microsoft

Code which is written without using .net is called unmanaged code because you manually think about freeing memory for your objects.

In .net world , all this pain of memory management done by Garbage Collector.

Answer 3

You will get a fair idea on managed and unmanaged code in following article -

http://www.developer.com/net/cplus/print.php/2197621

Answer 4

When you code with .net you get some memory management, garbage collection etc, so it is called managed code. Older versions are unmanaged (for the memory is managed by the programmer)

And to keep things easy, calling from managed code to unmanaged code can be a trye pain.

Answer 5

Unmanged code will be compiled to machine language to run directly on the hardware.

Managed code will be compiled to a virtual machine called CLR (Common Language Runtime), and compiled to machine language on start by the JIT (Just in time compiler). THE CLR can be compared to the java virtual machine, it is the same concept.