Object Serialization and the .NET Remoting Layer

Abstract

Developers who are new to the.NET platform naturally assume that.NET is all about building Internet-centric applications (given the term “.NET”). As you have already seen however, this is simply not the case. In fact, the construction of Web-centric programs is simply one tiny (but quite well-touted) aspect of the.NET platform. In this same vein of misinformation, many new.NET developers tend to assume that XML Web services are the only way to interact with remote objects. Again, this is not true. The.NET platform provides numerous namespaces devoted to the creation of traditional distributed applications, which have nothing to do whatsoever with XML Web services (or Web applications). In short, using.NET you are able to build peer-to-peer distributed applications that have nothing to do with HTTP or XML (if you so choose). As you will see over the course of this chapter, the.NET Remoting architecture is a managed replacement for classic DCOM.