Common Intermediate Language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:02, 8 June 2025

Latest revision as of 09:42, 29 July 2025

(3 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{short description|Intermediate representation defined within the CLI specification}}

{{confused|C Intermediate Language}}joydeb
{{refimprove|date=November 2017}}

'''Common Intermediate Language''' ('''CIL'''), formerly called '''Microsoft Intermediate Language''' ('''MSIL''') or '''Intermediate Language''' ('''IL'''),<ref>{{cite web |url = https://docslearn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/managed-code |title = IntermediateWhat Languageis &"managed executioncode"?|publisher=Microsoft| date=19 April 2023 }}</ref> is the [[intermediate language]] binary instruction set defined within the [[Common Language Infrastructure]] (CLI) specification.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-335/ <!-- |page = 32 --> |title = ECMA-335 Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)}}</ref> CIL instructions are executed by a CIL-compatible runtime environment such as the [[Common Language Runtime]]. Languages which target the CLI compile to CIL. CIL is [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented]], [[Stack machine|stack-based]] [[bytecode]]. Runtimes typically [[Just-in-time compilation|just-in-time]] compile CIL instructions into [[native code]].

CIL was originally known as Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) during the beta releases of the .NET languages. Due to standardization of [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]] and the CLI, the bytecode is now officially known as CIL.<ref>{{cite web