The
Standard Libraries are the
standard libraries of the
Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). The CLI includes the Standard Libraries in order to encapsulate a large number of common functions, such as file reading and writing,
XML document manipulation,
exception handling, application
globalization, network communication,
threading and
reflection, which makes the programmer's job easier. It is much larger in scope than standard libraries for most other languages, including
C++, and is comparable in scope and coverage to the
standard libraries of Java. The
Framework Class Library (FCL) is the origin of the Standard Libraries as the .NET Framework, which includes the FCL, is the first implementation of the CLI.