6. Conclusion

IT is overrun with COM components, and if the application you want to build makes intensive use of this universe, then .NET is ideal. You'll find sophisticated development tools, programming languages tailored to your needs, and the ability to build a component using several programming languages thanks to the common type language. And even if you're writing a new application, .NET is just as suitable.

• Access point: this is the strong point of the .NET approach: any Web client can access a service published on the Web. There's no need for specific configuration, protocol stack installation or firewall configuration. Integration with Web standards is total, and an XML client and the forthcoming availability of the SOAP protocol will make this possible, and perhaps even obviate the need to program CGI scripts, which will be replaced by .NET...