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# Using Referenced Assemblies

Eiffel for.NET is a first class citizen in the Microsoft.NET programming world. This means that if you are programming in Eiffel for.NET, say with ENViSioN!, you have full access to the thousands of software components in the .NET type libraries. But, that's not all. You also have full access to the thousands of components in the traditional Eiffel class libraries. And even that's not all. You have the ability to build software components which comply with.NET standards, so that they can be used by programmers using any other .NET language. Still not all. When you use Eiffel, you can choose to build software that will run under Microsoft.NET, but will be portable to other popular operating systems as well.

Being an Eiffel for.NET programmer obviously put you in a very powerful position. How do you take advantage of it?

To use.NET software components from Eiffel for.NET requires you to have some understanding of both.NET and Eiffel and how their respective object models differ. If you have read the rest of the help topics in this section then you have a pretty good idea of what the Eiffel method and language are all about.

When you begin to build software in Eiffel for.NET, you will likely find a need to reuse types from the.NET libraries. These libraries are called assemblies. When you reference a assembly using Eiffel for.NET, the types in the assembly become available to you in a form that makes them look like so many Eiffel classes. The names for types and members will conform to Eiffel conventions. The same thing happens when you are programming against assemblies in Visual Basic.NET or Visual C#.NET.

The section called Conventions covers the details the Eiffel conventions and how the.NET types are made available to Eiffel for.NET programmers.