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provides similar functionality. Interestingly, since the announcement of Windows Workflow Foundation,
both of these companies have stated that the next generation of their respective products will be built on
top of the Microsoft workflow software.
Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation, sometimes called Windows WF, was developed by Microsoft to pro-
vide developers with a single platform on which to develop workflow- or process-based software solu-
tions. Windows Workflow Foundation is built on top of .NET and is a major component of the .NET
Framework 3.0.
An Introduction to .NET and the .NET Framework 3.0
Because Windows Workflow Foundation is built on .NET and is part of the .NET Framework 3.0, the fol-
lowing sections provide some background and context related to those technologies.
The .NET Framework
At its core, the .NET Framework is a platform that supports application development and the ability to
run software built on the framework. The types of software that you can build on the .NET Framework
include web applications with ASP.NET, smart client applications, and XML web services, to name a few.
Figure 1-3 is a graphical representation of the .NET Framework stack.
Figure 1-3
The .NET Framework also provides a managed runtime that allows developers to not worry about
memory management as part of writing software. Source code is compiled into
Intermediate Language
CLR Languages (C#, VB.NET, C++, J#, etc.)
ASP.NET, Windows Forms
Base Class Library (BCL)
Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Windows
Visual Studio
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Chapter 1: An Introduction to Workflow and Windows Workflow Foundation
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