JScript .NET, Part III: Classes and Namespaces

In this column we continue our series on JScript .NET. In Part I, we laid down the groundwork for JScript .NET, showing you how to install IIS and the .NET SDK, and how to compile and run a JScript .NET program. In Part II, we showed you the major differences between JavaScript and JScript .NET. In this column, we focus on JScript .NET's classes.

Classes are one of the most (if not the most) popular constructs of any Object Oriented language. Classes usually come with their own nomenclature. Luckily, the JScript .NET's jargon is very similar to that used by other programming languages. In this column, we'll introduce the concept of namespaces. We'll show you how to import namespaces, and how the jsc.exe compiler searches the disk to find the files where the namespaces are defined. We'll show you how to create new classes and give you a taste of the thousands of classes in the .NET Framework. We'll explain the concept of class member visibility, and show you a few modifiers to change the defaults (static, public, private, and protected).

In this column you will learn:

• How to tell a namespace from a class
• How to import namespaces
• How to package namespaces
• How to load assemblies
• How to specify member visibility