.577 Nitro Express, History, WWI service
In 1914 and early 1915, German snipers were engaging British Army positions with impunity from behind steel plates that were impervious to .303 British ball ammunition. In an attempt to counter this threat, the British War Office purchased fifty-two large bore sporting rifles from British rifle makers which were issued to regiments, including two .577 Nitro Express rifles. These large bore rifles proved very effective against the steel plates used by the Germans, in his book Sniping in France 1914-18 Major H. Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC stated that they "pierced them like butter".


.577 Nitro Express, Use
The .577 Nitro Express is suitable for hunting all dangerous game, although it was considered something of a specialist elephant hunter's tool for close cover hunting and emergencies, the harsh recoil this round produces requires a rifle of 13-pound (5.9 kg) minimum weight. Typically a hunter carried a lighter rifle in a smaller calibre for general hunting whilst a rifle bearer carried a heavy gun such as this, a necessity as an exhausted man could not reliably aim such heavy rifles as these.


.577 Nitro Express, Use
In his African Rifles and Cartridges, John "Pondoro" Taylor says the .577 Nitro Express is "a magnificent killer – it literally crumbles up an elephant", further stating the shock of a head shot from a .577 Nitro Express bullet is enough to knock an elephant out for up to 20 minutes.


.577 Nitro Express, Use, Prominent users
James H. Sutherland, who over the course of his life shot between 1,300 and 1,600 elephants, stated in his The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter, "after experimenting with and using all kinds of rifles, I find the most effective to be the double .577 with a 750 grains bullet and a charge in Axite powder equivalent to a hundred grains of cordite." And further stating "I think the superiority of the .577 over the .450 and .500 rifles, will be evident when I state that I have lost elephants with these last two rifles, while I have bagged others with identically the same shots from a .577."


.577 Nitro Express, Use, Prominent users
Other famous African users include Major G.H. Anderson (shot between 350 and 400 elephants), Deaf Banks (shot over 1,000 elephants), Quentin Grogan, John A. Hunter (shot more than 1,000 rhinoceros) and Pete Pearson (shot over 2,000 elephants).


.577 Nitro Express, Use, Prominent users
"Pondoro" Taylor used a Westley Richards .577 Nitro Express double rifle, stating "it did great work for me amongst elephant, rhino and buffalo; it's much too powerful for anything lighter." He parted with the rifle after only a short period because the single-trigger mechanism was unlike all of his other rifles.


.577 Nitro Express, Use, Prominent users
Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Józef Potocki both owned Westley Richards Droplock .577 Nitro Express double rifles, Stewart Granger owned two including Potocki's rifle.


.577 Snider
The .577 Snider cartridge was a British black powder metallic cartridge, which fired a 14.7-millimetre (0.577 in), 31-gram (480 gr) lead projectile, primarily used in the Snider–Enfield rifle.


.577 Snider
Early .577 Snider cartridges were made from a composite design using paper and brass foil with a stamped metallic base and primer, much like the first generation of Martini-Henry cartridges. Later cartridges (after the design had been proved with the Martini-Henry cartridges) were made from drawn brass, much like modern small arms ammunition. The .577 Snider cartridge was eventually replaced in service by the .577/450 Martini–Henry cartridge in the 1870s. The .577 Snider cartridge is considered by most commentators to be obsolete, with large scale commercial production having ceased in the 1930s.


.577 Snider
However, as of 2012, cases, bullets and cartridges as well as others of the .577 family are available from Tenbury Guns Limited (company dissolved 31 May 2016) in the United Kingdom. New brass can be formed from a 24 gauge  hull and reloading dies are available from Lee. As of 2015, Kynamco Kynoch in the United Kingdom and Bertram in Australia are also producing ready-made brass.


.577 Tyrannosaur
The .577 Tyrannosaur or .577 T-Rex (14.9×76mm) is a very large and powerful rifle cartridge developed by A-Square in 1993 on request for professional guides in Zimbabwe who escort clients hunting dangerous game. The cartridge is designed for use in "stopping rifles" intended to stop the charge of dangerous game. The 577 contains a .585-inch (14.9 mm) diameter 750-grain (49 g) monolithic solid projectile which when fired moves at 2,460 ft/s (750 m/s) producing 10,180 foot-pounds force (13,800 J) of muzzle energy. The production model from A-square is based on their Hannibal rifle.


.577/450 Martini–Henry
The .577/450 Martini–Henry is a black powder, centrefire rifle cartridge, it was the standard British service cartridge from the early 1870s that went through two changes from the original brass foil wrapped case (with 14 parts) to the drawn brass of two parts, the case and the primer. The .577/450 Martini–Henry was introduced with the Martini–Henry, in service it succeeded the .577 Snider cartridge and was used by all arms of the British armed forces as well British colonial forces throughout the British Empire until it was itself succeeded by the .303 British cartridge after an unsuccessful trial of a .402 calibre


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design
The .577/450 Martini–Henry is a rimmed, bottlenecked centerfire rifle cartridge derived from the .577 Snider, it was lengthened and bottlenecked. The .577/450 Martini–Henry was developed for use in the single shot Martini–Henry service rifle, originally loaded with blackpowder but later used cordite propellant.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges
The various rifle cartridges fired a 480 gr (31 g) bullet made of an alloy of 1 part tin and 12 parts lead, driven by 85 gr (5.5 g) of RFG2 blackpowder and later 35.8 gr (2.32 g) of cordite size 3 at a muzzle velocity of 1,300 to 1,350 ft/s (400 to 410 m/s).


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges, Coiled brass cases
The first .577/450 Martini–Henry rifle cartridge, the Cartridge S.A. Ball Rifle Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark I, was made of coiled brass sheet .003 in (0.076 mm) thick with a strengthening strip of brass inside the coil and the body of the cartridge was riveted to the iron base disc and lined with thin white tissue paper. The smooth sided bullet was paper-patched with a thick cake of beeswax below the bullet with two cardboard discs above and a single one below.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges, Coiled brass cases
As a matter of economy, the Mark I was replaced by the Cartridge S.A. Ball Rifle Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark II which had a slightly thicker .004 in (0.10 mm) wall, no strengthening strip and a slightly longer base cap was added.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges, Coiled brass cases
The Mark II had a tendency to split at the base, so the Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Rolled Case Mark III was developed which had two layers of .004 in brass overlapped by .5 in (13 mm) with a .004 in brass strengthening strip with a small sight hole punched in the outer coil as a visual check that the strip was correctly placed and an inner and outer base cap turned over at the base.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges, Coiled brass cases
As a result of complaints about the recoil compared to the Snider cartridge, Woolwich developed a lighter loading with a 410 gr (27 g) bullet driven by 80 gr (5.2 g) of blackpowder, the Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Rolled Case Mark IV. The Mark IV is visually identical to the Mark III and once removed from its bundle can only be identified by weight, it was produced in batches between 1873 and 1880 by which time complaints about the recoil had ceased, presumably as soldiers became accustomed to it, and later production reverted to the Mark III.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges, Drawn brass cases & cordite loadings
In service, the coiled brass cases proved to be fragile and prone to sticking in the chamber, so in 1885 a solid drawn brass case was introduced, the Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Solid Case Mark I. This was soon replaced by the Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Solid Case Mark II with a paper patch that did not extend so far up the bullet. The Mark II cartridge was replaced in British Army service by the .303 British from 1889, but remained in the service of colonial forces for many years.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Rifle cartridges, Drawn brass cases & cordite loadings
In 1902 the use of cordite was approved for use in the .577/450 cartridge and the Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Rifle Solid Case Cordite Mark I was introduced the same year, with a similar cartridge case and bullet, but loaded with cordite.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Carbine cartridges
A reduced power load was produced for use in carbines, firing a 410 gr (27 g) bullet of the same alloy driven by 70 gr (4.5 g). The lighter carbine loading was less accurate, had a shorter range and less stopping power, but the two were interchangeable.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Carbine cartridges, Coiled brass cases
The Cartridge S.A. Ball Carbine Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark I was introduced in 1877, it shared the coiled brass case of the Mark III rifle cartridge with a cotton card taking up the unused space left by the use of less powder. In service the Mark I carbine cartridge was found to be inaccurate, so in 1878 the Cartridge S.A. Ball Carbine Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark II was introduced, which replaced the cotton card with thicker paper lining.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Carbine cartridges, Coiled brass cases
In 1879 the Cartridge S.A. Ball Carbine Breech-Loading Martini Henry Mark III was introduced, the major changes was to the paper patching of the bullet which included longitudinal slits to ensure it was discarded upon the bullet exiting the muzzle. The Mark III carbine cartridge remained in service for many years.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Carbine cartridges, Drawn brass cases & cordite loadings
The introduction of solid drawn brass cases for rifle cartridges was followed in 1887 with the similar Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Carbine Solid Case Mark I solid drawn brass carbine cartridge, whilst it retained the same 410 gr bullet it had a heavier 85 gr (5.5 g) loading of blackpowder. Following the introduction of a cordite rifle cartridge, the Cartridge S.A. Ball Martini Henry Carbine Solid Case Cordite Mark I was introduced in 1903. It was propelled by 34 gr (2.2 g) of cordite, the other major difference was a green paper used to patch the bullet


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Anti-airship cartridges
Prior to World War I, to combat the threat of Zeppelins it was determined that machine guns firing explosive or incendiary rounds were required to ignite the airship's gas. The bullet of the .303 British was too small to carry enough incendiary composition for the intended purpose, so the .577/450 round was adapted to the purpose and in 1914 the Cartridge S.A. Tracer Martini Henry Rifle and Machine Gun Mark I was introduced.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Anti-airship cartridges
This round used reclaimed drawn brass cases from rifle cartridges, firing a 270 gr (17 g) bullet made of a brass outer envelope containing 50 gr (3.2 g) of incendiary mix (20 parts potassium perchlorate and 7 parts aluminium) and 20 gr (1.3 g) of igniting mixture towards the tip. The cartridge was propelled by 47 gr (3.0 g) of cordite size 3 at a muzzle velocity of 2,150 ft/s (660 m/s).


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Anti-airship cartridges
In 1916 a tracer round was developed for the .577/450, the 295 gr (19.1 g) bullet comprised a cupronickel envelope containing 91 gr (5.9 g) of tracer element. The round was propelled by 40 to 50 gr (2.6 to 3.2 g) of cordite at a muzzle velocity of 2,000 ft/s (610 m/s).


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Design, Sporting cartridges
The .577/450 was also loaded with a variety of bullets designed for sporting use, including solid, hollow-pointed and copper-tubed bullets.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, History
The .577/450 Martini–Henry was introduced into British service in 1871 with the single-shot, dropping block Martini–Henry rifle, replacing the .577 Snider and the Snider–Enfield rifle.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, History, Colonial service
The .577/450 Martini–Henry was first fired in combat on the Malay peninsular in the Perak War of 1875–76, although the first widespread deployment of cartridge and the Martini-Henry rifle occurred in 1878, when it saw service in Southern Africa in the later stages of the Ninth Xhosa war, and later that year in Afghanistan in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. It was used by British forces throughout the Anglo-Zulu War, chambered in both the Martini–Henry and the Swinburn–Henry rifles, the latter a commercially produced rifle designed to avoid contravening the patent for the Martini action.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, History, Colonial service
The .577/450 Martini–Henry, chambered in the Martini–Henry and later the Maxim gun, saw service throughout the British Empire.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, History, Colonial service
In Africa the cartidge saw combat in the Anglo-Zulu War, chambered in both the Martini–Henry and the Swinburn–Henry rifles, the latter a commercially produced rifle designed to avoid contravening the patent for the Martini action, the First Boer War, the Anglo–Sudan War, the Anglo-Egyptian War, the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, and the First Matabele War, the cartridge continued to see widespread service throughout Africa even after the introduction of the .303 British, seeing service in the Second Boer War in both British and Boer hands.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, History, Colonial service
The .577/450 Martini–Henry also saw service throughout the British Raj, Burma, the various Australian colonies, the Canadian Confederation, the Colony of New Zealand and throughout the Caribbean. The .577/450 Martini–Henry continued in service with various colonial police forces throughout Africa and India up to the First World War.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, History, Great War and subsequent use
The .577/450 Martini–Henry was still in British military service in World War I, in the early stages of the war it was used by the Royal Flying Corps, both by observers and balloon busters. As late as the 2010s, Martini–Henry rifles have been seized in Taliban caches.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Use, Sporting use
The .577/.450 lived on as a useful medium bore rifle for sporting or guard use long after it became militarily obsolete. Sporting rifles were made for the cartridge, and surplus military arms were sold off in the Third World (although not in India or the Sudan, where they were banned). The Martini Henry was particularly popular in the Middle East, and demand continued for the cartridges well into the 20th century.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Use, Sporting use
Commercial sporting load. Because of ease of ammunition availability of the military cartridge .577/.450 sporting rifles or Cape guns (a combination double barreled rifle and shotgun) were popular with colonial settlers and army officers.


.577/450 Martini–Henry, Use, Sporting use
John Henry Patterson used a Martini .577/.450 to kill the second of the famous Man Eating Lions of Tsavo.


.577/500 Nitro Express
The .577/500 3⅛-inch Nitro Express is a British centerfire fire rifle cartridge.


.577/500 Nitro Express, Development
The .577/500 NE was developed by loading a 3⅛-inch variant of the .577/500 Black Powder Express with smokeless cordite. The latter was developed by necking down the .577 Black Powder Express to .508".


.577/500 Nitro Express, Development
Whilst very similar to the .577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express the two are not interchangeable.


.577/500 Nitro Express, Use
Despite being a similar size, the .577/500 NE is not nearly as powerful as the .500 Nitro Express and is not suitable for such thick-skinned game as elephant. Like the .500 Black Powder Express, the .577/500 NE was never highly regarded for hunting in Africa, yet it was popular in India.


.577/500 Nitro Express, Use
Moderately popular in its day, the round has long since ceased to be offered commercially.


.577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express
The .577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express, also known as the 12.7mm British No 2, is a British centerfire fire rifle cartridge.


.577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express, Development
The .577/500 No 2 BPE was developed as a black powder round some time before 1879 by necking down the .577 Black Powder Express to .507-inches (12.9 mm) for use in single or double rifles, as well as a variety of Martini-based lever rifles.


.577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express, Development
Like the .450 Black Powder Express, the .577/500 BPE came in several case lengths, the most common having a 3-inch case. A 3⅛-inch variant would later be loaded with cordite to become the .577/500 Nitro Express.


.577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express, Development
For some time the .577/500 No 2 BPE was loaded with cordite to become the .577/500 No 2 Nitro for Black, the same cartridge loaded with mild loadings of cordite, carefully balanced through trial to replicate the ballistics of the Black powder version.


.577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express, Use
The .577/500 No 2 BPE was a popular cartridge in India for hunting all thin-skinned game up to tiger. Like the .500 Black Powder Express, the .577/500 No 2 BPE was never popular in Africa, not being powerful enough for thick-skinned game such as elephant.


.577/500 No 2 Black Powder Express, Use
Moderately popular in its day, the round has long since ceased to be offered commercially.


.585 Nyati
The .585 Nyati (14.9×71mm) is a shoulder-fired rifle cartridge. Nyati (n-ya-te) means Cape Buffalo in many African languages such as Swahili. The .585 Nyati can generate 10,000 lb⋅ft (13,600 N⋅m) of muzzle energy. This places it at or near the top of the list for most powerful cartridges that can be chambered in a rifle that can still be carried afield.


.585 Nyati, History
The .585 Nyati was developed by Ross Seyfried. He was motivated by the desire to create a rifle with tremendous stopping power at a fraction of the cost of expensive double guns such as the various Nitro Express rounds.


.585 Nyati, History
The rims were turned from .577 Nitro brass and the case blown out straight to allow formation of enough of a shoulder for headspace purposes. Brass formed by this method, during the developmental phase, had a relatively weak case head because the parent .577 Nitro case was designed for a double rifle which supports the case head all the way to the rim. In a bolt-action rifle, a portion of the case head is unsupported and requires more strength in that area.


.5: The Gray Chapter
.5: The Gray Chapter is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Slipknot. It was released in Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands on October 17, 2014, the UK on October 20, 2014 and in North America on October 21, 2014.


.5: The Gray Chapter
It was the first studio album by the band in six years and the first not to feature original founding members bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison due to the death of Gray in 2010 (the title of the album being a reference to his surname), and Jordison leaving the band in late 2013, as well as the only Slipknot album to feature original guitarist Donnie Steele on bass, although the tracks he played on are unknown, and the first Slipknot album to have Alessandro Venturella on bass and Jay Weinberg on drums.


.5: The Gray Chapter
The album includes six singles and has received commercial success and acclaiming reviews. A standard and deluxe edition of the album was released. It is also the band's final studio album to feature their longtime percussionist Chris Fehn before his dismissal from the band due to a lawsuit in March 2019.


.5: The Gray Chapter
"The Negative One" received a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 57th annual Grammy Awards. The album was nominated for Best Rock Album the following year, along with a Best Metal Performance nomination for the song "Custer".


.5: The Gray Chapter, Background
The writing process of the record began in late 2013. Wanting to dedicate more time to the album, guitarist Jim Root decided not to tour with Stone Sour in January 2014.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Background
A new bassist and drummer were added to the lineup during live shows. Taylor told Loudwire that two similar masks were created for their appearances in music videos and stage performances, as, when the new members were given the opportunity to make their own masks, the results were, according to Taylor, "kind of cartoony" and did not fit the mind set of Slipknot. Both members were briefly shown in the music video for "The Devil in I", but their identities have not been announced by Slipknot amidst speculation.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Background
Root revealed in an interview that founding guitarist and former touring bassist Donnie Steele was involved in some of the studio sessions for the album, but that ultimately Steele declined to rejoin the band in favor of starting a family with his wife. Bassist Alessandro Venturella of Krokodil was identified by the unique tattoos on his hands, performing in the video for "The Devil in I". Jay Weinberg from the band Against Me! was brought in to audition on drums after Joey Jordison was fired from Slipknot.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Background
Jay Weinberg is the son of Max Weinberg the drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and Conan O'Brien's drummer and band leader for his late night talk show. Max Weinberg introduced Jay Weinberg to Slipknot and from there on forged a friendship by going to several concerts and being invited backstage; the band liked what he brought to the table and was told he was free to join if he wanted and he accepted. The album was produced by Greg Fidelman and mixed by Joe Barresi. Fidelman is known for his work with Metallica, System of a Down, Audioslave and more, as well as mixing Slipknot's third album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), in 2004.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Promotion and tour
On July 15, the band began releasing short teasers for the new album for over a two-week period that turned out to be clips from the official video along with samples from a song entitled "The Negative One". The song was released on August 1, 2014 and an accompanying video was released on August 5, 2014. It was directed by Shawn Crahan; however, it did not feature any of the band members. On August 13, 2014 the band revealed the cover art for their official radio single entitled "The Devil in I", and the single premiered on August 24, 2014. The official video for the single was unveiled on September 12 featuring the members with new variations of their masks with the exception of Taylor who debuted a new mask and the new bassist and drummer's masks which were very similar.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Promotion and tour
Slipknot began their world tour at the second iteration of Knotfest as headliners on October 25 and the 26 with Anthrax, Five Finger Death Punch, Otep and Black Label Society among others in California. A co-headline North American and European tour with Korn dubbed the Prepare for Hell tour commenced afterwards with King 810 in support. Slipknot and Korn embarked on the British leg of the Prepare For Hell tour in January 2015. In addition to the standard edition, a deluxe edition featuring two listed and three unlisted bonus tracks, and a special edition featuring a T-shirt of the album cover have also been released.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
.5: The Gray Chapter received generally positive reviews, as most critics praised the return of their older sound from Slipknot and Iowa, while maintaining the melodies the band explored on Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). Florino characterized it as "the most abrasive work since their self-titled debut," The Guardian's Dom Lawson as "every bit as warped and explosive as previous records" Ray Van Horn of Blabbermouth.net hailed the album as "a return to their punishing roots" and noted that "AOV" showcased some elements of thrash metal. Exclaim!


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
critic Bradley Zorgdrager pointed out that Slipknot "wastes no time kicking it back to 2001's Iowa" while Metal Hammer's critic Dom Lawson noted that "there’s plenty of [...] brutal, turbocharged Slipknot [...] here," while Rock Revolt mentioned that the album uses elements from their previous studio albums while "pushing the creative boundaries of [their] past albums into new territory." Q' magazine's Tom Bryant complained that the album's lighter tracks, namely "Goodbye," "Killpop," and "The One That Kills The Least," were "disappointingly timid." However, he followed by commenting that "It's possible to entirely forget these when Slipknot play to their strengths: unrelenting darkness and attack," using "Custer," "The Devil in I," and "Lech" as examples.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
Several critics praised the way the album acknowledged Gray's memory. Rock Revolt noted plenty of lyrical content relating to Gray. While Revolver magazine critic Dan Epstein and Gregory Heaney from AllMusic concluded that "they don’t try to sugarcoat their loss, anger or grief anywhere on the album," and that "from that deep well of pain, another great Slipknot record has emerged," and that "they're able to channel their grief into a productive album, allowing them to continue moving forward [...] with one of the strongest albums of their career," respectively.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
Zorgdrager saw it as "it's a considerable accomplishment and a lovely eulogy to their fallen comrade." Several critics appreciated the composition of the album, with Van Horn characterizing it as "a largely dark, often moving listening experience."


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
Loudwire critic Chad Childers wrote noted the "mix of all the different sounds" creating "a musical journey" and pointed that while the album "rocks and pummels you in all the right places like you would hope, it also shows a depth in emotion and some heavily personal moments on a much grander scale," while Artistdirect critic Rick Florino gave the album a perfect rating concluding that "by the time this journey ends, it feels as if Slipknot have come full circle."


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
Billboard critic Gary Suarez was a little more critical of the album stating, "for such an emotionally loaded comeback, .5: The Gray Chapter is Slipknot's least gripping LP. [ ...] "Skeptic" is lyrically awkward, but the band recovers well on processional closer "If Rain Is What You Want." Emblematic of both Slipknot's strengths and its weaknesses, perhaps this album is the sort of warts-and-all eulogy Gray would have wanted."


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Critical response
Former drummer Joey Jordison praised the album saying that he "listened to the whole record multiple times, and I think it’s great. It’s fucking cool and I’m glad they moved on. I’m glad they’re carrying on the name, because what’s important is the fans.”


.5: The Gray Chapter, Reception, Accolades
The album's lead single, "The Negative One", was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 57th Grammy Awards. Additionally, the album was nominated for the Best Rock Album and "Custer" was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Commercial performance
.5: The Gray Chapter landed in the number one spot in Australia on the ARIA Albums Chart with 14,188 first week sales. It was Slipknot's second album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart by selling 132,000 copies in its first week. The album also debuted at number one in Japan, Canada, Russia and Switzerland. It had top 5 debuts in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Austria, New Zealand, Mexico, Denmark and Finland.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Track listing
All songs credited to Slipknot. Writing credits taken from ASCAP.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Track listing
There are three hidden tracks. The first is silent. The second starts with distorted music, before moving on to an interview with distorted audio. The interview is with a man who claims to have written massively famous heavy metal albums. The third is a farewell track played at the end of their live shows.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Track listing
The tracks are commonly referred to as "-Silent-", "-Talk-" and "-Funny-" respectively, but don't have any official names.


.5: The Gray Chapter, Certifications
* Sales figures based on certification alone.^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.


.600 Nitro Express
The .600 Nitro Express is a large bore Nitro Express rifle cartridge developed by W.J. Jeffery & Co for the purpose of hunting large game such as elephant.


.600 Nitro Express, Design
The .600 Nitro Express is a slightly tapered walled, rimmed, centerfire rifle cartridge designed for use in single-shot and double rifles.


.600 Nitro Express, Design
The cartridge fires a .620 in (15.7 mm) diameter, 900 gr (58 g) projectile with three powder loadings: the standard being 100 gr (6.5 g) of cordite at a muzzle velocity of 1,850 ft/s (560 m/s); a 110 gr (7.1 g) loading which generates a muzzle velocity of 1,950 ft/s (590 m/s); and a 120 gr (7.8 g) loading which generates a muzzle velocity of 2,050 ft/s (620 m/s).


.600 Nitro Express, Design
Because of the recoil forces generated by this cartridge, rifles chambered in it typically weigh up to 16 lb (7.3 kg).


.600 Nitro Express, History
The .600 Nitro Express was developed by London gunmakers W.J. Jeffery & Co. Sources vary about the date of its introduction, although it would seem in 1900 the first .600 Nitro Express rifle was produced by W.J. Jeffery & Co, a 15 lb (6.8 kg) double barrelled hammer rifle. Jefferys produced around seventy rifles in .600 Nitro Express in four actions, double barrelled hammer break-open, single barrelled break-open, falling block and double barrelled break-open with and without ejectors.


.600 Nitro Express, History
Until the introduction of the .700 Nitro Express in 1988, the .600 Nitro Express was the most powerful commercially available hunting rifle cartridge in the world. Aside from W.J. Jeffery & Co, several gunmakers have and continue to offer rifles chambering this .600 Nitro Express, although in 2009 it was estimated by Holland & Holland that only around one hundred .600 Nitro Express rifles had ever been produced to that time.


.600 Nitro Express, History, WWI service
In 1914 and early 1915, German snipers were engaging British Army positions with impunity from behind steel plates that were impervious to .303 British ball ammunition. In an attempt to counter this threat, the British War Office purchased sixty-two large-bore sporting rifles from British rifle makers, including four .600 Nitro Express rifles, which were issued to regiments. These large-bore rifles proved very effective against the steel plates used by the Germans. In his book, Sniping in France 1914-18, Major H. Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC stated they "pierced them like butter".


.600 Nitro Express, History, WWI service
Stuart Cloete, sniping officer for the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, stated "We used a heavy sporting rifle - a .600 Express. These had been donated to the army by big game hunters and when we hit a plate we stove it right in. But it had to be fired standing or from a kneeling position to take up the recoil. The first man who fired it from the prone position had his collar bone broken."


.600 Nitro Express, Use
The .600 Nitro Express, along with the .577 Nitro Express, was a specialist backup weapon for professional elephant hunters. Too heavy to be carried all day and used effectively, it was usually carried by a gun bearer. It was used when in thick cover and when an effective shot at the heart and lungs was not possible.


.600 Nitro Express, Use
In his African Rifles and Cartridges, John "Pondoro" Taylor says the shock of a head shot from a .600 Nitro Express bullet is enough to knock an elephant out for up to half an hour.


.600 Nitro Express, Use, Prominent users
In the course of his career, Taylor owned and used two .600 Nitro Express double rifles, the first was regulated for 110 gr (7.1 g) loadings, the second was a W.J. Jeffery & Co double rifle that weighed 16 lb (7.3 kg) with 24 in (610 mm) barrels and was regulated for 100 gr loadings. He states he was very fond of his Jeffery .600 which he used as a second backup rifle to a .400 Jeffery Nitro Express, and with it he killed between 60 and 70 elephants.


.600 Nitro Express, Use, Prominent users
Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Karl Larsen and Major Percy Powell-Cotton all used W.J. Jeffery & Co .600 Nitro Express rifles extensively.


.600 Nitro Express, Use, Parent case
In 1929 Holland & Holland produced the .600/577 Rewa by necking down the .600 Nitro Express to accept a .582 in (14.8 mm) bullet.


.600 Nitro Express, Use, Parent case
The .50 British ammunition used in the Vickers .50 machine gun was initially a necked-down .600 NE.


.600 Overkill
The .600 Overkill is a hunting cartridge designed to fit the CZ-550 action, by American Hunting Rifles.


.600 Overkill, Design
The .600 Overkill was designed by Robert Garnick of Las Vegas, Nevada. The case is a custom, with a belt, .683 in (17.35 mm), added for headspacing and the rim to fit that of the .505 Gibbs .640 in-(16.26 mm) size, bolt face.


.600 Overkill, Design
This cartridge was intended to fire the largest bullet able to fit in the CZ-550, and was designed specifically for the purpose of elephant hunting. The CZ-550 is able to fit two cartridges, with slight alterations. The .600 Overkill fires a 900-grain (58 g) bullet at more than 2,400 ft/s (730 m/s),


.600/577 Rewa
The .600/577 Rewa, also known as the .600/577 Rewa Nitro Express, Holland's .600/577 and the .577 Rewa, is an obsolete big bore rifle cartridge.


.600/577 Rewa, Overview
The .600/577 Rewa was developed and introduced by Holland & Holland in 1929 by a special order for Martand Singh, Maharaja of Rewa.


.600/577 Rewa, Overview
The .600/577 Rewa is a rimmed, bottlenecked centerfire rifle cartridge. The .600/577 Rewa is derived from the .600 Nitro Express necked down to accept the .582 in (14.8 mm) calibre bullet of the .577 Nitro Express. The .600/577 Rewa fires a 750 gr (49 g) bullet driven by 110 gr (7.1 g) of cordite.


.600/577 Rewa, Overview
Always rare, the .600/577 Rewa was produced by Holland & Holland until 1957, although it can still be purchased from Kynoch.


.700 Nitro Express
The .700 Nitro Express (17.8×89mmR) is a big game rifle cartridge made by Holland & Holland, London, England. It was developed in 1988 by Jim Bell and William Feldstein and built by H&H. Feldstein had tried unsuccessfully to get H&H to build a .600 Nitro Express for him, but they had already ceased production. However, when Bell and Feldstein produced the entirely new .700 Nitro Express cartridge, they were able to attract the interest of H&H, which was looking for a new big-bore cartridge. After production began, the backlog of orders was so great that it continued to 2007 and H&H restarted the production of .600 Nitro Express guns.


.700 Nitro Express, Specifications
In many respects this cartridge parallels the .600 Nitro Express. It is essentially a scaled-up version of that cartridge, but is somewhat more powerful, and fires a heavier 1000-grain (64.8 g) bullet. The case itself is a completely new case, not simply another case resized. Double rifles are extremely expensive, starting at about $10,000 and selling upwards of $260,000 USD in 2015, and have generally been replaced by repeater-rifles using rounds such as the .458 Winchester.


.700 Nitro Express, Specifications
Single factory loaded .700 Nitro cartridges are available, typically at $100 USD each.


.700 Nitro Express, Ballistics
The .700 Nitro Express develops an approximate average of 8,900 foot-pounds force (12,100 J) of muzzle energy with a 1,000 gr (65 g) bullet at 2,000 ft/s (610 m/s). However handloaders can push the cartridge to generate as much as 15,000 foot-pounds (20,000 J) of energy in a modern bolt action, by using a 1,000 gr (65 g) bullet fired at 2,600 ft/s (792 m/s). However, doing so necessitates a rifle so heavy it is almost inoperable for hunting purposes. Lathe turned cases as used in the Accurate Reloading rifle above will suffer blown primers at this level though a good source of drawn brass would allow (in theory) velocities up to 2,700 ft/s (820 m/s).


.700 Nitro Express, Ballistics
The typical average muzzle velocity of a factory-loaded cartridge is 2,000 ft/s (610 m/s). In the 18-pound (8.2 kg) rifle used by Accurate Reloading this would result in recoil energy of approximately 160 ft⋅lbf (220 J). This is more than ten times the average recoil from a .308 Winchester which is a very common hunting calibre, and more than 4 times the recoil of a strong .45-70 Government round.


.700 Nitro Express, Comparable calibers
Rifle calibers comparable to the .700 Nitro Express in terms of power and recoil include the following:


.950 JDJ
The .950 JDJ (24.1x70mm) is a powerful large caliber rifle cartridge developed by American gunsmith and weapon designer J. D. Jones of SSK Industries.


.950 JDJ, Cartridge
.950 JDJ cases are approximately 70 mm in length, and are based on a 20×110mm case shortened and necked up to accept the .950 in (24.1 mm) bullet. Projectiles are custom-made and most commonly weigh 3,600 grains (230 g) which is 8.2 ounces or over half a pound.


.950 JDJ, Rifles
As its name implies, rifles chambered for the cartridge have a groove diameter of 0.950 in (24.1 mm). SSK received a "Sporting Use Exception" to de-regulate the rifles. Thus, in the United States, they can be owned like any other Title I rifle by an American citizen at age 18. The rifles use McMillan Firearms stocks and extraordinarily thick Krieger barrels bearing an 18 lb (8.2 kg) muzzle brake. Overall, depending on options, the rifles weigh from 85 to 120 pounds (39 to 54 kg)  and are therefore only useful for shooting from a bench rest or heavy bipod.


.950 JDJ, Rifles
Despite the weight, recoil is significant and shooters must be sure to choose components (i.e., scopes and bipods) that can handle the force. The sheer size, weight, and power of these rifles make them rather impractical for hunting use. SSK only manufactured three of these rifles and as of 2014 no longer produces the ammunition.


.950 JDJ, Ballistics
The cartridge propels its 3,600 grains (233 grams) bullet at approximately 2,200 feet per second (670 metres per second). This yields a muzzle energy of 38,685 foot-pounds force (52,450 joules).


.950 JDJ, Ballistics
By comparison, the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge, used in the M16 and M4 rifles, produces between 1,200–1,300 foot-pounds force (1,600–1,800 joules), while the .308 Winchester, a favorite for hunters, police, and military sniping, produces between 2,000–3,000 foot-pounds force (2,700–4,100 joules) depending on the load used. Even the .50 BMG, which has a kinetic energy of around 13,000–15,000 foot-pounds force (18,000–20,000 joules) delivers less than half the energy. The ballistics of the .950 JDJ are more similar to that of the 20 mm autocannon round, which delivers approximately 39,500 foot-pounds force (53,600 joules). The muzzle energy of the .950 JDJ is comparable to the kinetic energy of a 2,800 pounds (1,300 kilograms) automobile traveling at 20 miles per hour (32 kilometres per hour).


.950 JDJ, Ballistics
In a 110 lb (50 kg) rifle, this will develop well over 200 foot-pounds force (270 joules) of free recoil energy. Shooting usually involves a heavy "lead sled" or similar shooting rest, and the rifle scope has significant eye relief to avoid injuring the ocular orbit.


.CSO
.CSO is a compression method for the ISO image format. It is used to compress dumped PlayStation Portable UMD games, and is an alternative to the .DAX compression method. It is also sometimes called "CISO".


.CSO
It was the first compression method for ISO. It was created so that more memory space can be saved. Booster created the first code; it was later optimized for better compression. Other formats tried to replace it by fixing up certain issues such as lag in games, such as .DAX and .JSO. However at the time, the popular application homebrew "DevHook" used CSO. .DAX needed another loader, and .JSO was basically unused.


.CSO
CSO uses Deflate compression with nine levels of presets, usually with 2 KiB blocks handled individually (they could be uncompressed). While the highest levels of compression can introduce slowdown and lengthy load-times in software which relies heavily on disc streaming, even the lower levels are capable of substantial compression. This is partially due to the data layout of a UMD, though more frequently due to the use of Dummy Files as both an anti-piracy tool and a means to more optimally lay the data out physically on the disc.


.CSO
In addition to being used for compressing PlayStation Portable UMD games, the PSP port of PicoDrive supports compressed Sega Mega-CD disc images in the CSO format.


.CSO, Other formats
CSO are known to have received later extensions in the form of CSO "v2" and ZSO ("ZISO"), using LZ4 compression for faster decompression. CSO "v2" is backwards compatible with CSO "v1" when using Deflate, while ZSO only supports LZ4.


.CSO, Other formats
DAX is a competing format, it uses 8 KiB blocks which aims to increase the data compression ratio, and it also allows uncompressed areas just like CSO. JSO ("JISO") was another now unpopular competing format that was overall similar to CSO, with the difference of added option for LZO compression and a block size tweakable in the official compressor. While CSO allows a tweakable block size, the official compressor does not allow changing it.


.CSO, File structure
The file format consists of a 24-byte header, an index table, and data blocks. Little-endian is assumed for fields larger than a byte, following the architecture endianness of PlayStation Portable.


.CSO, File structure, Index table
The index table consists of multiple 4-byte entries, which indicate the position of each data block within the file. There is an additional, last entry which points to the end of file. The number of entries in the table can be calculated using the formula:Nentries=ceil(uncompressed size/block size)+1{\displaystyle N_{entries}=ceil(uncompressed\ size/block\ size)+1}.


.CSO, File structure, Index table
The ZSO format has similar semantics, only that 0 represents LZ4 instead of Deflate.


.CSO, File structure, Index table
In the "v2" format, the meaning of the field is as follows:


.CSO, File structure, Index table
The block is implicitly considered to be uncompressed if the block size is equal to or larger than the block size specified in the file header.


.CSO, File structure, Data blocks
Each data block contains uncompressed or compressed data. The actual size of each block is calculated by taking its position, and then subtracting it from the position of the following block. If the index alignment is greater than zero, it is possible that the block size is larger than the data it holds, necessitating the use of padding.


.DS_Store
In the Apple macOS operating system, .DS_Store is a file that stores custom attributes of its containing folder, such as the position of icons or the choice of a background image. The name is an abbreviation of Desktop Services Store, reflecting its purpose. It is created and maintained by the Finder application in every folder, and has functions similar to the file desktop.ini in Microsoft Windows. Starting with a period . character, it is  hidden in Finder and many Unix utilities. Its internal structure is proprietary, but has since been reverse-engineered. Starting at macOS 10.12 16A238m, Finder will not display .DS_Store files (even with com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES set).


.DS_Store, Purpose and location
The file .DS_Store is created in any directory (folder) accessed by the Finder application, even on remote file systems mounted from servers that share files (for example, via Server Message Block (SMB) protocol or the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP)). Remote file systems, however, could be excluded by operating system settings (such as permissions). Although primarily used by the Finder, these files were envisioned as a more general-purpose store of metadata about the display options of folders, such as icon positions and view settings. For example, on Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" and later, the ".DS_Store" files contain the Spotlight comments of the folder's files. These comments are also stored in the extended file attributes, but Finder does not read those.


.DS_Store, Purpose and location
In earlier Apple operating systems, Finder applications created similar files, but at the root of the volume being accessed, including on foreign file systems, collecting all settings for all files on the volume (instead of having separate files for each respective folder).


.DS_Store, Problems
The complaints of many users prompted Apple to publish means to disable the creation of these files on remotely mounted network file systems. Since macOS High Sierra (10.13), Apple delays the metadata gathering for .DS_Store for folders sorted alphanumerically to improve browsing speed. However, these instructions do not apply to local drives, including USB flash drives, although there are some workarounds. Before Mac OS X 10.5, .DS_Store files were visible on remote filesystems.


.DS_Store, Problems
.DS_Store files may impose additional burdens on a revision control process, since they are frequently changed and can therefore appear in commits, unless specifically excluded.


.DS_Store, Problems
.DS_Store files are included in archives, such as ZIP, created by OS X users, along with other hidden files and directories like the AppleDouble ._.


.DS_Store, Problems
.DS_Store files have been known to adversely affect copy operations. If multiple files are selected for file transfer, the copy operation will retroactively cancel all progress upon reaching a (duplicate) .DS_Store file, forcing the user to restart the copy operation from the beginning.


.EDU Film Festival
The .EDU Film Festival is Minnesota's only school-sponsored, statewide, high school film festival. The two-day event puts Minnesota's young filmmakers together with film industry professionals and provides them with an authentic festival experience. The festival features student film screenings, equipment demos; roundtables with film directors, writers, and producers; and meet-and-greets with post secondary institutions that feature strong film/video production programs.


.EDU Film Festival
In 2009, young filmmakers representing 25 schools from around the state of Minnesota submitted 125 short films to the festival. Films are categorized as narrative, documentary, animation, or experimental film and must be student-made and without violence, profanity or drug use.


.EDU Film Festival
The festival takes place in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is housed in several venues such as the Riverview Theater in South Minneapolis, St. Anthony Main Theater on the Mississippi Riverfront in Northeast Minneapolis, and the Parkway Theater also in South Minneapolis.


.EDU Film Festival
A long list of notable Minnesota filmmakers support the .EDU Film Festival by serving as panelists during both days of the event. In 2009 panelists included: documentarian Melody Gilbert, documentarian Matt Ehling, film reviewer and novelist Peter Schilling, film critic Colin Covert, film writer Jim Brunzell III, news editor Euan Kerr, filmmaker and animator Tom Schroeder, screenwriter Michael Starrbury, producer/filmmaker Bobby Marsden, production manager Deena Graf, and creative director Jeffrey Bair.


.EDU Film Festival, Mission statement
As the only school-sponsored, statewide, student film festival in the state of Minnesota, The .EDU Film Festival serves an important role in the development of young filmmakers in our state. .EDU aims to provide young filmmakers with an authentic film festival experience, a valuable understanding of the film industry, and an opportunity to screen their movies on “the big screen.”


.EDU Film Festival, Mission statement
By putting students together with Minnesota filmmakers, industry professionals, and post high school educational institutions, the .EDU Film Festival also introduces the young people of Minnesota to the variety of film industry options available right here in our state.


.EDU Film Festival, Mission statement
Lastly, The .EDU Film Festival provides a time and place for young filmmakers from all over the state to interact with each other, form friendships and partnerships, and to create a professional network of peers.


.EXE Magazine
.EXE Magazine was a monthly computer software magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1986 to 2000.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
Founded in 1986 by Mark Adams, former co-founder of PR agency Text 100, .EXE (rhymes with 'not sexy' as the magazine's official pronunciation guide states) was inspired by Dr. Dobb's Journal, the PC Tech Journal and the C Users Group Newsletter. It was conceived as a title aimed at professional programmers, in contrast to the majority of hobbyist-oriented computer magazines of the period. Adams served as the magazine's first editor.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
The magazine's heyday coincided with the availability of cheap PC clones running MS-DOS and the first widely adopted version of Windows, both factors which encouraged the spread of programming into smaller businesses and created an audience for .EXE and similar titles that followed. Unusually for the UK, the magazine was sold primarily by postal subscription and controlled circulation, rather than in retail newsagents. This reflected its focus on a professional audience, as many readers obtained their copies through their employment.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
.EXE′s content consisted largely of practical how-to articles focusing on particular platforms or techniques, along with more general software development content, news, book reviews and regular columns. With an audience consisting primarily of PC software developers, the content was largely for the DOS and Windows platforms, although over the years .EXE published articles on OS/2, Modula-2, Smalltalk and PalmPilot development, among others. The magazine featured regular columns on C++, Java, Visual Basic and Unix and took an early interest in Linux and open source more generally, particularly under the editorship of David Mery, featuring interviews with prominent open source and free software proponents including Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
In 1992 the magazine's publisher Process Communications was sold to Centaur Communications (now Centaur Media), ostensibly because Centaur was interested in a Process title called Software Management. In the end, Centaur elected to keep .EXE running and closed Software Management and the third Process title, BASIC Magazine. This left .EXE as the only print title aimed at software professionals at Centaur, and the only title focused on computing and technology, at least until New Media Age debuted in 1995.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
In 1995 the magazine was re-branded as EXE Magazine, dropping the dot, which caused some controversy among regular readers and spawned the nickname 'Dotless' for the new version. At around the same time the magazine launched an online venture called EXplodE - later EXE Online - which started as a companion title with its own editor, but was later taken over by the print editorial team and evolved into an online archive of content and a marketing vehicle for the print title.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
Several of EXE′s editorial staff were well known in the UK technology community as journalists or otherwise. The magazine's second editor, Robert Schifreen, had previously been notorious for his involvement in the hacking of a Telecom Gold account belonging to Prince Philip. Other editors or staff writers included Will Watts, Danny O'Brien, Cliff Saran and Hobbit Coward.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
In later years, EXE began to feature more product reviews and 'advertorial' content such as salary surveys, as its publishers sought to make the magazine more commercially focused. The magazine partnered with the UK-based Association of C and C++ Users to produce conference events. However, the market for computer magazines in general was in decline, and as knowledge and technical information about software development began to move primarily online, print titles like EXE began to lose readers and advertisers. Centaur shuttered the magazine in the summer of 2000, selling its content and branding - perhaps ironically - to the magazine that inspired its creation, Dr. Dobb's Journal.


.EXE Magazine, History and profile
EXE was also the first home of satirical columnist Verity Stob, who went on to write for Dr Dobbs and, latterly The Register.


.Feast
Feast (stylized as .Feast) is a rock music group from Indonesia. The current members include Baskara Putra, Adnan S.P, Dicky Renanda P, F. Fikriawan W, and Adrianus Aristo H.


.Feast, Career
.Feast came into formation when the members were still studying Social and Political Science at the University of Indonesia. In 2014, they released their debut album titled "Camkan" which spots Religious Freedom in Indonesia.


.Feast, Career
After Camkan, they had planned to make another album titled "Convictions", however, they went inactive for a year instead. They later returned with a single, "Wives of ゴジラ/Gojira (We Belong Dead)" featuring Janitra Satriani, and in July 2017, they released "Sectumsempra", inspired by Harry Potter, featuring Yudhis from Rachun Band.


.Feast, Career
On 18 September 2017, they released an EP titled Multiverses featuring many collaborators including the rapper Ramengvrl, Elephant Kind's vocalist Bam Mastro, Mardial, Oscar Lolang, Haikal Azizi, and many more.


.Feast, Career
On 13 July 2018, .Feast released a single for an upcoming album titled "Peradaban". On 10 August 2018, .Feast released a second single featuring Rayssa Dynta titled "Berita Kehilangan", which points out criminalization, rape, rebellion, and terrorism cadres in Indonesia. In late 2018, Baskara Putra started a solo career under the name "Hindia".


.Feast, Career
In 2019, .Feast released another EP called "Membangun dan Menghancurkan" containing a single titled "Dalam Hitungan", which satirizes political polarization, religious bigotry, and Internet addiction in Indonesia, and another single titled "Tarian Penghancur Raya" which spots environmental and cultural threat issues. Also in 2019, .Feast & The Panturas released a single titled "Gelora" for the 2019 SEA Games in Philippines.


.Gabriel
.Gabriel (pronounced "dot Gabriel") is an opera in two acts (to be performed continuously) written by American composer Robert J. Bradshaw. The libretto, also by Bradshaw, was inspired by the composer's online experiences with social networking websites, instant messaging, chat rooms and email correspondence. The opera was commissioned by the Australian Trumpet Guild for performance at the 35th Annual Conference of the International Trumpet Guild, 2010, Sydney, Australia. Also in 2010, the composition was awarded an American Music Center Composer Assistance Program Grant  and was named winner of a 2009 Boston Metro Opera Mainstage Award.


.Gabriel, About the opera
.Gabriel is an allegory for society's increasing perception of connection to the world through the Internet, while in fact separating ourselves from physical interaction. The false perception of safety and protection (and ultimate isolation) of electronic relationships at times promotes posting statements or images people would never consider saying (or doing) in person. Although Principal interacts with the other members of the cast, they never come in contact with each other. A scrim represents the physical barrier (the computer screen) that separates Principal from the living world around her."


.Gabriel, About the opera
.Gabriel is a composition where the trumpet performs as one of the main characters, interacting on stage with the vocalists. The three vocal roles represent different aspects of social interaction. "Principal represents society's dependency on the Internet, computers and electronic communication." She lives alone and is consumed by her need to be "connected". There are also two minor male roles that act as Principal's memories. One is the positive spirit of social relationships and the other is the actual situations where social interaction is required.


.Gabriel, Concert premiere
.Gabriel was premiered at the Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (July 8, 2010). The two principal roles were performed by Joshua Clarke (Yamaha Performing Artist and Principal Trumpet of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra)  and Jane Parkin (Opera Australia Artist and member of the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program)   In March 2010, scenes from the opera sung by Tina Milhorn Stallard, who sang Principal in the premiere recording, had been previewed at the Palm Beach Atlantic University New Music Festival.


.Gabriel, Staged premiere
.Gabriel was first staged in America on February 25–26, 2011, by the Boston Metro Opera. The performances took place at Hope Central Church in the historic Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. These performances were announced on December 1, 2009, when the opera won a BMO Mainstage Award.


.Gabriel, First recording
.Gabriel was recorded by the Palmetto Camerata at the University of South Carolina (January 5–7, 2010) and released by Beauport Classical (BC41009) on CD in 2010. The recording features Tina Milhorn Stallard (soprano) and James Ackley (trumpet) performing the principal roles.


.Gears
.Gears (or dotGears) is a Vietnamese video game developer based in Hanoi that specialises in mobile games. The company was founded in 2005 by Dong Nguyen, and is best known for developing the 2013 game Flappy Bird, which became popular due to its simple mechanics but high difficulty. As of December 2015, the company employs six people, including Nguyen.


.Gears
After releasing multiple games that copied the Flappy Bird mechanics, .Gears partnered with Japanese developer Obokaidem, which would be .Gears' only partner "for the foreseeable future". The two companies released their first co-developed game, Ninja Spinki Challenges! !, which uses different mechanics but was considered by critics as equally difficult, in January 2017.


.NET
.NET (previously named .NET Core) is a free and open-source, managed computer software framework for Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. It is a cross-platform successor to .NET Framework. The project is primarily developed by Microsoft employees by way of the .NET Foundation, and released under the MIT License.


.NET, History
On November 12, 2014, Microsoft announced .NET Core, in an effort to include cross-platform support for .NET, including Linux and macOS, source for the .NET Core CoreCLR implementation, source for the "entire [...] library stack" for .NET Core, and the adoption of a conventional ("bazaar"-like) open-source development model under the stewardship of the .NET Foundation. Miguel de Icaza describes .NET Core as a "redesigned version of .NET that is based on the simplified version of the class libraries", and Microsoft's Immo Landwerth explained that .NET Core would be "the foundation of all future .NET platforms".


.NET, History
At the time of the announcement, the initial release of the .NET Core project had been seeded with a subset of the libraries' source code and coincided with the relicensing of Microsoft's existing .NET reference source away from the restrictions of the Ms-RSL. Landwerth acknowledged the disadvantages of the formerly selected shared license, explaining that it made codename Rotor "a non-starter" as a community-developed open source project because it did not meet the criteria of an Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved license.


.NET, History
.NET Core 1.0 was released on June 27, 2016, along with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, which enables .NET Core development. .NET Core 1.0.4 and .NET Core 1.1.1 were released along with .NET Core Tools 1.0 and Visual Studio 2017 on March 7, 2017.


.NET, History
.NET Core 2.0 was released on August 14, 2017, along with Visual Studio 2017 15.3, ASP.NET Core 2.0, and Entity Framework Core 2.0. .NET Core 2.1 was released on May 30, 2018. NET Core 2.2 was released on December 4, 2018.


.NET, History
.NET Core 3 was released on September 23, 2019. .NET Core 3 adds support for Windows desktop application development and significant performance improvements throughout the base library.


.NET, History
In November 2020, Microsoft released .NET 5.0 which replaced .NET Framework. The "Core" branding was removed and version 4.0 was skipped to avoid conflation with .NET Framework. It addresses the patent concerns related to the .NET Framework.


.NET, History
.NET Core 2.1 and later, i.e. including .NET 5, support Alpine Linux (Alpine primarily supports and uses musl libc).


.NET, History
As of .NET 5, Windows Arm64 is natively supported. Previously, .NET on ARM was previously applications compiled for the x86 architecture, thereby meaning the applications were using the ARM emulation layer.


.NET, Language support
.NET fully supports C# and F# (and C++/CLI as of 3.1; only enabled on Windows) and supports Visual Basic .NET (for version 15.5 in .NET Core 5.0.100-preview.4, and some old versions supported in old .NET Core).


.NET, Language support
VB.NET compiles and runs on .NET, but as of .NET Core 3.1, the separate Visual Basic Runtime is not implemented. Microsoft initially announced that .NET Core 3 would include the Visual Basic Runtime, but after two years the timeline for such support was updated to .NET 5.


.NET, Architecture
.NET supports four cross-platform scenarios: ASP.NET Core web apps; command-line apps; libraries; and Universal Windows Platform apps. Prior to .NET Core 3.0, it did not implement Windows Forms or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which render the standard GUI for desktop software on Windows. Now, however, .NET Core 3 supports desktop technologies Windows Forms, WPF, and Universal Windows Platform (UWP). It is also possible to write cross-platform graphical applications using .NET with the GTK# language-binding for the GTK widget toolkit.


.NET, Architecture
.NET supports use of NuGet packages. Unlike .NET Framework, which is serviced using Windows Update, .NET relies on its package manager to receive updates. Starting in December 2020, however, .NET updates started being delivered via Windows Update as well.


.NET, Architecture
The two main components of .NET are CoreCLR and CoreFX, which are comparable to the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the Framework Class Library (FCL) of the .NET Framework's Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) implementation.


.NET, Architecture
As a CLI implementation of Virtual Execution System (VES), CoreCLR is a complete runtime and virtual machine for managed execution of CLI programs and includes a just-in-time compiler called RyuJIT. .NET Core also contains CoreRT, the .NET Native runtime optimized to be integrated into AOT compiled native binaries.


.NET, Architecture
As a CLI implementation of the foundational Standard Libraries, CoreFX shares a subset of .NET Framework APIs, however, it also comes with its own APIs that are not part of the .NET Framework. A variant of the .NET library is used for UWP.


.NET, Architecture
The .NET command-line interface offers an execution entry point for operating systems and provides developer services like compilation and package management.


.NET, Mascot
The official community mascot of .NET is the .NET Bot (stylized as "dotnet bot" or "dotnet-bot"). The dotnet bot served as the placeholder developer for the initial check-in of the .NET source code when it was open-sourced. It has since been used as the official mascot.


.NET Bio
.NET Bio is an open source bioinformatics and genomics library created to enable simple loading, saving and analysis of biological data. It was designed for .NET Standard 2.0 and was part of the Microsoft Biology Initiative in the eScience division.


.NET Bio, History
.NET Bio was originally built and released by Microsoft Research under the name Microsoft Biology Foundation (MBF) and was later repackaged and released by the Outercurve Foundation as a fully public and open source project under the Apache License 2.0.


.NET Bio, Capabilities
The library consists of a set of object-oriented classes written in C# to perform common bioinformatic tasks such as:


.NET Bio, Capabilities
Even though the library itself is written in C#, it may be used from any .NET compatible language and has samples of various usages including from IronPython scripting.


.NET Compact Framework
The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF) is a version of the .NET Framework that is designed to run on resource constrained mobile/embedded devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, factory controllers, set-top boxes, etc. The .NET Compact Framework uses some of the same class libraries as the full .NET Framework and also a few libraries designed specifically for mobile devices such as .NET Compact Framework controls. However, the libraries are not exact copies of the .NET Framework; they are scaled down to use less space.


.NET Compact Framework, Development
It is possible to develop applications that use the .NET Compact Framework in Visual Studio .NET 2003, in Visual Studio 2005 and in Visual Studio 2008, in C# or Visual Basic .NET. Applications developed with Basic4ppc are also eventually compiled for the .NET CF. The resulting applications are designed to run on a special, mobile-device, high performance JIT compiler.


.NET Compact Framework, Development
The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5 Redistributable contains the common language runtime and class libraries built for the .NET Compact Framework. In addition to version 3.5 support, it also supports applications developed for version 1.0 and 2.0. The .NET Compact Framework 3.5 provides new features such as Windows Communication Foundation, LINQ, SoundPlayer, new runtime tool support, and many other features.


.NET Compact Framework, Development
The UI development is based on Windows Forms which is also available on the desktop version of the .NET Framework. User interfaces can easily be created with Visual Studio by placing .NET Compact Framework controls like buttons, text boxes, etc. on the forms. Also features like data binding are available for the .NET CF. A major disadvantage of the UI development is that modern looking applications with support for finger-based touch screen interaction are not that easy to implement. This is mainly due to the desktop-oriented user interface concept on which Windows Forms is based, although some third party libraries with custom controls for this purpose are available.


.NET Compact Framework, Deployment
To be able to run applications powered by the .NET Compact Framework, the platform must support the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework runtime. Some operating systems which do include .NET CF are Windows CE 4.1, Microsoft Pocket PC, Microsoft Pocket PC 2002, Smartphone 2003, and Symbian v3. .NET Compact Framework applications can be run on desktop computers with the full .NET Framework as long as they only access the shared parts of both frameworks, though their user interface cannot be upgraded to look like that of an application developed for desktop PCs.


.NET Compact Framework, Deployment
A version of the .NET Compact Framework is also available for the Xbox 360 console. While it features the same runtime as the regular .NET CF, only a subset of the class library is available. This version is used by XNA Framework to run managed games on the console. There are other limitations as well, such as the number of threads being limited to 256. Unlike other versions of .NET CF, the Xbox 360 version allows setting processor affinity to threads created. The threads are scheduled among four concurrent threads running on the multiple processor cores of the system.


.NET Compact Framework controls
NET Compact Framework controls is a set of controls for .NET Compact Framework.


.NET Compact Framework controls, Overview
The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework is a sub-library of .NET Framework. It simplifies the mobile application development of smart devices. These are to a large extent limited by the screen size, CPU performance or memory capacity. .NET Compact Framework takes some of the controls and libraries from .NET Framework. Moreover, it optimizes them to match the limited options of mobile devices in comparison with PCs. There are certain criteria of user interface that mobile users demand. While plenty of functions of standard PC or Mac applications add to the user experience, they might decrease the mobile user experience. Mobile screen is usually small. Therefore, the user may often miss click on mobile screen with many buttons. All of the .NET Compact Framework controls are hence optimized to overcome the possible limits of mobile devices. Third-party controls are also available.


.NET Compact Framework controls, Third-party .NET Compact Framework controls
Apart from Microsoft other companies exist who produce .NET Compact Framework controls. See External links section below to find out more third-party .NET Compact Framework controls.


.NET Foundation
The .NET Foundation is an organization incorporated on March 31, 2014, by Microsoft to improve open-source software development and collaboration around the .NET Framework. It was launched at the annual Build 2014 conference held by Microsoft. The foundation is license-agnostic, and projects that come to the foundation are free to choose any open-source license, as defined by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The foundation uses GitHub to host the open-source projects it manages.


.NET Foundation
Anyone who has contributed to .NET Foundation projects can apply to be a .NET Foundation member. Members can vote in elections for the board of the directors and will preserve the health of the organization.


.NET Foundation
The foundation began with twenty-four projects under its stewardship including .NET Compiler Platform ("Roslyn") and the ASP.NET family of open-source projects, both open-sourced by Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. (MS Open Tech). Xamarin contributed six of its projects including the open source email libraries MimeKit and MailKit. As of May 2020, it is the steward of 556 active projects, including: .NET, Entity Framework (EF), Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), Umbraco, MSBuild, NuGet, Orchard CMS and WorldWide Telescope. Many of these projects are also listed under Outercurve Foundation project galleries.


.NET Foundation
As of March 2021, its board of directors consisted of Beth Massi, Bill Wagner, Javier Lozano, Jeff Strauss, Layla Porter, Rodney Littles II and Shawn Wildermuth.


.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (pronounced as "dot net") is a software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large class library called Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages. Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a software environment (in contrast to a hardware environment) named the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR is an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling. As such, computer code written using .NET Framework is called "managed code". FCL and CLR together constitute the .NET Framework.


.NET Framework
FCL provides the user interface, data access, database connectivity, cryptography, web application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. Programmers produce software by combining their source code with .NET Framework and other libraries. The framework is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform. Microsoft also produces an integrated development environment for .NET software called Visual Studio.


.NET Framework
.NET Framework began as proprietary software, although the firm worked to standardize the software stack almost immediately, even before its first release. Despite the standardization efforts, developers, mainly those in the free and open-source software communities, expressed their unease with the selected terms and the prospects of any free and open-source implementation, especially regarding software patents. Since then, Microsoft has changed .NET development to more closely follow a contemporary model of a community-developed software project, including issuing an update to its patent promising to address the concerns.


.NET Framework
In April 2019, Microsoft released .NET Framework 4.8, the last version of the framework as a proprietary offering. Only monthly security and reliability bug fixes to that version have been released since then. No further changes to that version are planned.


.NET Framework, History
Microsoft began developing .NET Framework in the late 1990s, originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS), as part of the .NET strategy. By early 2000, the first beta versions of .NET 1.0 were released.


.NET Framework, History
In August 2000, Microsoft, and Intel worked to standardize Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and C#. By December 2001, both were ratified Ecma International (ECMA) standards. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) followed in April 2003. The current version of ISO standards are ISO/IEC 23271:2012 and ISO/IEC 23270:2006.


.NET Framework, History
While Microsoft and their partners hold patents for CLI and C#, ECMA and ISO require that all patents essential to implementation be made available under "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms". The firms agreed to meet these terms, and to make the patents available royalty-free. However, this did not apply for the part of .NET Framework not covered by ECMA-ISO standards, which included Windows Forms, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET. Patents that Microsoft holds in these areas may have deterred non-Microsoft implementations of the full framework.


.NET Framework, History
On October 3, 2007, Microsoft announced that the source code for .NET Framework 3.5 libraries was to become available under the Microsoft Reference Source License (Ms-RSL). The source code repository became available online on January 16, 2008 and included BCL, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Windows Forms, WPF, and XML. Scott Guthrie of Microsoft promised that LINQ, WCF, and WF libraries were being added.


.NET Framework, History
The .NET Compact Framework and .NET Micro Framework variants of the .NET Framework provided support for other Microsoft platforms such as Windows Mobile, Windows CE and other resource-constrained embedded devices. Silverlight provided support for web browsers via plug-ins.


.NET Framework, History
In November 2014, Microsoft also produced an update to its patent grants, which further extends the scope beyond its prior pledges. Prior projects like Mono existed in a legal grey area because Microsoft's earlier grants applied only to the technology in "covered specifications", including strictly the 4th editions each of ECMA-334 and ECMA-335. The new patent promise, however, places no ceiling on the specification version, and even extends to any .NET runtime technologies documented on MSDN that have not been formally specified by the ECMA group, if a project chooses to implement them.


.NET Framework, History
This allows Mono and other projects to maintain feature parity with modern .NET features that have been introduced since the 4th edition was published without being at risk of patent litigation over the implementation of those features. The new grant does maintain the restriction that any implementation must maintain minimum compliance with the mandatory parts of the CLI specification.


.NET Framework, History
On March 31, 2016, Microsoft announced at Microsoft Build that they will completely relicense Mono under an MIT License even in scenarios where formerly a commercial license was needed. Microsoft also supplemented its prior patent promise for Mono, stating that they will not assert any "applicable patents" against parties that are "using, selling, offering for sale, importing, or distributing Mono." It was announced that the Mono Project was contributed to the .NET Foundation. These developments followed the acquisition of Xamarin, which began in February 2016 and was finished on March 18, 2016.


.NET Framework, History
Microsoft's press release highlights that the cross-platform commitment now allows for a fully open-source, modern server-side .NET stack. Microsoft released the source code for WPF, Windows Forms and WinUI on December 4, 2018.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Common Language Infrastructure
Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) provides a language-neutral platform for application development and execution. By implementing the core aspects of .NET Framework within the scope of CLI, these functions will not be tied to one language but will be available across the many languages supported by the framework.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Common Language Runtime
.NET Framework includes the Common Language Runtime (CLR). It serves as the execution engine of .NET Framework and offers many services such as memory management, type safety, exception handling, garbage collection, security and thread management. All programs written for .NET Framework are executed by the CLR.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Common Language Runtime
Programs written for .NET Framework are compiled into Common Intermediate Language code (CIL), as opposed to being directly compiled into machine code. During execution, an architecture-specific just-in-time compiler (JIT) turns the CIL code into machine code.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Assemblies
Compiled CIL code is stored in CLI assemblies. As mandated by the specification, assemblies are stored in Portable Executable (PE) file format, common on Windows platform for all dynamic-link library (DLL) and executable EXE files. Each assembly consists of one or more files, one of which must contain a manifest bearing the metadata for the assembly. The complete name of an assembly (not to be confused with the file name on disk) contains its simple text name, version number, culture, and public key token. Assemblies are considered equivalent if they share the same complete name.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Assemblies
A private key can also be used by the creator of the assembly for strong naming. The public key token identifies which private key an assembly is signed with. Only the creator of the key pair (typically the person signing the assembly) can sign assemblies that have the same strong name as a prior version assembly, since the creator possesses the private key. Strong naming is required to add assemblies to Global Assembly Cache.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Assemblies
Starting with Visual Studio 2015, .NET Native compilation technology allows for the compilation of .NET code of Universal Windows Platform apps directly to machine code rather than CIL code, but the app must be written in either C# or Visual Basic.NET.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Class library
.NET Framework includes an implementation of the CLI foundational Standard Libraries. The .NET Framework Class Library (FCL) is organized in a hierarchy of namespaces. Most of the built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) are part of either System. * or Microsoft. * namespaces. These class libraries implement many common functions, such as file reading and writing, graphic rendering, database interaction, and XML document manipulation. The class libraries are available for all CLI compliant languages. The FCL implements the CLI Base Class Library (BCL) and other class libraries—some are specified by CLI and other are Microsoft specific.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Class library
BCL includes a small subset of the entire class library and is the core set of classes that serve as the basic API of CLR. For .NET Framework most classes considered being part of BCL reside in mscorlib.dll, System.dll and System.Core.dll. BCL classes are available in .NET Framework as well as its alternative implementations including .NET Compact Framework, Microsoft Silverlight, .NET Core and Mono.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Class library
FCL refers to the entire class library that ships with .NET Framework. It includes an expanded set of libraries, including BCL, Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) but also extensions to the base class libraries ADO.NET, Language Integrated Query (LINQ), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Workflow Foundation (WF). FCL is much larger in scope than standard libraries for languages like C++, and comparable in scope to standard libraries of Java.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Class library
With the introduction of alternative implementations (e.g., Silverlight), Microsoft introduced the concept of Portable Class Libraries (PCL) allowing a consuming library to run on more than one platform. With the further proliferation of .NET platforms, the PCL approach failed to scale (PCLs are defined intersections of API surface between two or more platforms). As the next evolutionary step of PCL, the .NET Standard Library was created retroactively based on the System.Runtime.dll based APIs found in UWP and Silverlight. New .NET platforms are encouraged to implement a version of the standard library allowing them to re-use extant third-party libraries to run without new versions of them. The .NET Standard Library allows an independent evolution of the library and app model layers within the .NET architecture.


.NET Framework, Architecture, Class library
NuGet is the package manager for all .NET platforms. It is used to retrieve third-party libraries into a .NET project with a global library feed at NuGet.org. Private feeds can be maintained separately, e.g., by a build server or a file system directory.


.NET Framework, Architecture, C++/CLI
Microsoft introduced C++/CLI in Visual Studio 2005, which is a language and means of compiling Visual C++ programs to run within the .NET Framework. Some parts of the C++ program still run within an unmanaged Visual C++ Runtime, while specially modified parts are translated into CIL code and run with the .NET Framework's CLR.


.NET Framework, Architecture, C++/CLI
Assemblies compiled using the C++/CLI compiler are termed mixed-mode assemblies, since they contain native and managed code in the same DLL. Such assemblies are more complex to reverse engineer, since .NET decompilers such as .NET Reflector reveal only the managed code.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Interoperability
Because computer systems commonly require interaction between newer and older applications, .NET Framework provides means to access functions implemented in newer and older programs that execute outside .NET environment. Access to Component Object Model (COM) components is provided in System.Runtime. InteropServices and System.EnterpriseServices namespaces of the framework. Access to other functions is via Platform Invocation Services (P/Invoke). Access to .NET functions from native applications is via reverse P/Invoke function.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Language independence
.NET Framework introduces a Common Type System (CTS) that defines all possible data types and programming constructs supported by CLR and how they may or may not interact conforming to CLI specification. Because of this feature, .NET Framework supports the exchange of types and object instances between libraries and applications written using any conforming .NET language.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Type safety
CTS and the CLR used in .NET Framework also enforce type safety. This prevents ill-defined casts, wrong method invocations, and memory size issues when accessing an object. This also makes most CLI languages statically typed (with or without type inference). However, starting with .NET Framework 4.0, the Dynamic Language Runtime extended the CLR, allowing dynamically typed languages to be implemented atop the CLI.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Portability
While Microsoft has never implemented the full framework on any system except Microsoft Windows, it has engineered the framework to be cross-platform, and implementations are available for other operating systems (see Silverlight and § Alternative implementations). Microsoft submitted the specifications for CLI (which includes the core class libraries, CTS, and CIL), C#, and C++/CLI to both Ecma International (ECMA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO), making them available as official standards. This makes it possible for third parties to create compatible implementations of the framework and its languages on other platforms.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Security
.NET Framework has its own security mechanism with two general features: Code Access Security (CAS), and validation and verification. CAS is based on evidence that is associated with a specific assembly. Typically the evidence is the source of the assembly (whether it is installed on the local machine or has been downloaded from the Internet). CAS uses evidence to determine the permissions granted to the code. Other code can demand that calling code be granted a specified permission. The demand causes CLR to perform a call stack walk: every assembly of each method in the call stack is checked for the required permission; if any assembly is not granted the permission a security exception is thrown.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Security
Managed CIL bytecode is easier to reverse-engineer than native code, unless obfuscated. .NET decompiler programs enable developers with no reverse-engineering skills to view the source code behind unobfuscated .NET assemblies. In contrast, apps compiled to native machine code are much harder to reverse-engineer, and source code is almost never produced successfully, mainly because of compiler optimizations and lack of reflection. This creates concerns in the business community over the possible loss of trade secrets and the bypassing of license control mechanisms. To mitigate this, Microsoft has included Dotfuscator Community Edition with Visual Studio .NET since 2002. Third-party obfuscation tools are also available from vendors such as VMware, V.i. Labs, Turbo, and Red Gate Software. Method-level encryption tools for .NET code are available from vendors such as SafeNet.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Memory management
CLR frees the developer from the burden of managing memory (allocating and freeing up when done); it handles memory management itself by detecting when memory can be safely freed. Instantiations of .NET types (objects) are allocated from the managed heap; a pool of memory managed by CLR. As long as a reference to an object exists, which may be either direct, or via a graph of objects, the object is considered to be in use. When no reference to an object exists, and it cannot be reached or used, it becomes garbage, eligible for collection.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Memory management
.NET Framework includes a garbage collector (GC) which runs periodically, on a separate thread from the application's thread, that enumerates all the unusable objects and reclaims the memory allocated to them. It is a non-deterministic, compacting, mark-and-sweep garbage collector. GC runs only when a set amount of memory has been used or there is enough pressure for memory on the system. Since it is not guaranteed when the conditions to reclaim memory are reached, GC runs are non-deterministic. Each .NET application has a set of roots, which are pointers to objects on the managed heap (managed objects).


.NET Framework, Design principle, Memory management
These include references to static objects, objects defined as local variables or method parameters currently in scope, and objects referred to by CPU registers. When GC runs, it pauses the application and then, for each object referred to in the root, it recursively enumerates all the objects reachable from the root objects and marks them as reachable. It uses CLI metadata and reflection to discover the objects encapsulated by an object, and then recursively walk them. It then enumerates all the objects on the heap (which were initially allocated contiguously) using reflection. All objects not marked as reachable are garbage.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Memory management
This is the mark phase. Since the memory held by garbage is of no consequence, it is considered free space. However, this leaves chunks of free space between objects which were initially contiguous. The objects are then compacted together to make free space on the managed heap contiguous again. Any reference to an object invalidated by moving the object is updated by GC to reflect the new location. The application is resumed after garbage collection ends. The latest version of .NET framework uses concurrent garbage collection along with user code, making pauses unnoticeable, because it is done in the background.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Memory management
The garbage collector used by .NET Framework is also generational. Objects are assigned a generation. Newly created objects are tagged Generation 0. Objects that survive one garbage collection are tagged Generation 1. Generation 1 objects that survive another collection are Generation 2. The framework uses up to Generation 2 objects. Higher generation objects are garbage collected less often than lower generation objects. This raises the efficiency of garbage collection, as older objects tend to have longer lifetimes than newer objects. By ignoring older objects in most collection runs, fewer checks and compaction operations are needed in total.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Performance
When an application is first launched, the .NET Framework compiles the CIL code into executable code using its just-in-time compiler, and caches the executable program into the .NET Native Image Cache. Due to caching, the application launches faster for subsequent launches, although the first launch is usually slower. To speed up the first launch, developers may use the Native Image Generator utility to manually ahead-of-time compile and cache any .NET application.


.NET Framework, Design principle, Performance
The garbage collector, which is integrated into the environment, can introduce unanticipated delays of execution over which the developer has little direct control. "In large applications, the number of objects that the garbage collector needs to work with can become very large, which means it can take a very long time to visit and rearrange all of them."


.NET Framework, Design principle, Performance
.NET Framework provides support for calling Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) via managed code from April 2014 in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2. However, Mono has provided support for SIMD Extensions as of version 2.2 within the Mono.Simd namespace in 2009. Mono's lead developer Miguel de Icaza has expressed hope that this SIMD support will be adopted by CLR's ECMA standard. Streaming SIMD Extensions have been available in x86 CPUs since the introduction of the Pentium III. Some other architectures such as ARM and MIPS also have SIMD extensions. In case the CPU lacks support for those extensions, the instructions are simulated in software.


.NET Framework, Alternative implementations
.NET Framework was the predominant implementation of .NET technologies, until the release of .NET. Other implementations for parts of the framework exist. Although the runtime engine is described by an ECMA-ISO specification, other implementations of it may be encumbered by patent issues; ISO standards may include the disclaimer, "Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights." It is harder to develop alternatives to FCL, which is not described by an open standard and may be subject to copyright restrictions. Also, parts of FCL have Windows-specific functions and behavior, so implementation on non-Windows platforms can be problematic.


.NET Framework, Alternative implementations
Some alternative implementations of parts of the framework are listed here.


.NET Framework, Licensing
Microsoft managed code frameworks and their components are licensed as follows:


.NET Framework version history
Microsoft started development on the .NET Framework in the late 1990s originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS). By late 2001 the first beta versions of .NET 1.0 were released. The first version of .NET Framework was released on 13 February 2002, bringing managed code to Windows NT 4.0, 98, 2000, ME and XP.


.NET Framework version history
Since the first version, Microsoft has released nine more upgrades for .NET Framework, seven of which have been released along with a new version of Visual Studio. Two of these upgrades, .NET Framework 2.0 and 4.0, have upgraded Common Language Runtime (CLR). New versions of .NET Framework replace older versions when the CLR version is the same.


.NET Framework version history
The .NET Framework family also includes two versions for mobile or embedded device use. A reduced version of the framework, the .NET Compact Framework, is available on Windows CE platforms, including Windows Mobile devices such as smartphones. Additionally, the .NET Micro Framework is targeted at severely resource-constrained devices.


.NET Framework version history
.NET Framework 4.8 was the final version of .NET Framework, future work going into the rewritten and cross-platform .NET Core platform, which shipped as .NET 5 in November 2020.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.0
The first version of the .NET Framework was released on 13 February 2002 for Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP. Mainstream support for this version ended on 10 July 2007, and extended support ended on 14 July 2009, with the exception of Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC editions.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.0
On 19 June 2001, the tenth anniversary of the release of Visual Basic, .NET Framework 1.0 Beta 2 was released.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.0
.NET Framework 1.0 is supported on Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. Applications utilizing .NET Framework 1.0 will also run on computers with .NET Framework 1.1 installed, which supports additional operating systems.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.0, Service Pack 1
The .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 1 was released on 18 March 2002.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.0, Service Pack 2
The .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 2 was released on 7 February 2005.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.0, Service Pack 3
The .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 3 was released on 30 August 2004.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.1
Version 1.1 is the first minor .NET Framework upgrade. It is available on its own as a redistributable package or in a software development kit, and was published on 3 April 2003. It is also part of the second release of Visual Studio .NET 2003. This is the first version of the .NET Framework to be included as part of the Windows operating system, shipping with Windows Server 2003. Mainstream support for .NET Framework 1.1 ended on 14 October 2008, and extended support ended on 8 October 2013. .NET Framework 1.1 is the last version to support Windows NT 4.0, and provides full backward compatibility to version 1.0, except in rare instances where an application will not run because it checks the version number of a library.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.1
.NET Framework 1.1 is supported on Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Server 2008.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 1.1, Service Pack 1
The .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 was released on 30 August 2004.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 2.0
Version 2.0 was released on 22 January 2006. It was also released along with Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk 2006. A software development kit for this version was released on 29 November 2006. It was the last version to support Windows 98 and Windows Me.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 2.0
.NET Framework 2.0 is supported on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2. Applications utilizing .NET Framework 2.0 will also run on computers with .NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5 installed, which supports additional operating systems.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 2.0, Service Pack 1
The .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 was released on 19 November 2007.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 2.0, Service Pack 2
The .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 was released on 16 January 2009. It requires Windows 2000 with SP4 plus KB835732 or KB891861 update, Windows XP with SP2 plus Windows Installer 3.1. It is the last version to support Windows 2000 although there have been some unofficial workarounds to use a subset of the functionality from Version 3.5 in Windows 2000.


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 3.0
.NET Framework 3.0, formerly called WinFX, was released on 21 November 2006. It includes a new set of managed code APIs that are an integral part of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It is also available for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 as a download. There are no major architectural changes included with this release; .NET Framework 3.0 uses the same CLR as .NET Framework 2.0. Unlike the previous major .NET releases there was no .NET Compact Framework release made as a counterpart of this version. Version 3.0 of the .NET Framework shipped with Windows Vista. It also shipped with Windows Server 2008 as an optional component (disabled by default).


.NET Framework version history, .NET Framework 3.0
.NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2. Applications utilizing .NET Framework 3.0 will also run on computers with .NET Framework 3.5 installed, which supports additional operating systems.