What does mscorlib stand for? [duplicate]

mscorlib is definitely one of .net base class libraries and every program in C# depends on it, but what does it stand for?

In the ECMA standard for the C# Language Specification the word is mentioned 4 times and none of them referring to what it means.

1

3 Answers

Microsoft Common Object Runtime Library.

See and What does 'Cor' stand for?

3

Microsoft Core Library, ie they are at the heart of everything.

There is a more "massaged" explanation you may prefer:

"When Microsoft first started working on the .NET Framework, MSCorLib.dll was an acronym for Microsoft Common Object Runtime Library. Once ECMA started to standardize the CLR and parts of the FCL, MSCorLib.dll officially became the acronym for Multilanguage Standard Common Object Runtime Library."

From

Around 1999, to my personal memory, .Net was known as "COOL", so I am a little suspicious of this derivation. I never heard it called "COR", which is a silly-sounding name to a native English speaker.

5

It stands for

Microsoft's Common Object Runtime Library

and it is the primary assembly for the Framework Common Library.

It contains the following namespaces:

 System System.Collections System.Configuration.Assemblies System.Diagnostics System.Diagnostics.SymbolStore System.Globalization System.IO System.IO.IsolatedStorage System.Reflection System.Reflection.Emit System.Resources System.Runtime.CompilerServices System.Runtime.InteropServices System.Runtime.InteropServices.Expando System.Runtime.Remoting System.Runtime.Remoting.Activation System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels System.Runtime.Remoting.Contexts System.Runtime.Remoting.Lifetime System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging System.Runtime.Remoting.Metadata System.Runtime.Remoting.Metadata.W3cXsd2001 System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies System.Runtime.Remoting.Services System.Runtime.Serialization System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary System.Security System.Security.Cryptography System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates System.Security.Permissions System.Security.Policy System.Security.Principal System.Text System.Threading Microsoft.Win32 

Interesting info about MSCorlib:

• The .NET 2.0 assembly will reference and use the 2.0 mscorlib.The.NET 1.1 assembly will reference the 1.1 mscorlib but will use the 2.0 mscorlib at runtime (due to hard-coded version redirects in theruntime itself)
• In GAC there is only one version of mscorlib, you dont find 1.1 version on GAC even if you have 1.1 framework installed on your machine. It would be good if somebody can explain why MSCorlib 2.0alone is in GAC whereas 1.x version live inside framework folder
• Is it possible to force a different runtime to be loaded by the application by making a config setting in your app / web.config? you won’t be able to choose the CLR version by settings in the ConfigurationFile – at that point, a CLR will already be running, and there can only be one per process. Immediately after the CLR is chosen the MSCorlib appropriate for that CLR is loaded.

2