MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language)
Microsoft C/C++ 6.0/7.0 had the ability to emit P-code years ago and was used in Microsoft applications. The son-of-P-code is a bytecode called "MSIL" (Microsoft Intermediate Language).
MSIL is always compiled and runs on top of a runtime library called the
CLR ("Common Language Runtime") in a system that is collectively known as .NET ("dot-net"). .NET supports not just a single language such as C# (the Microsoft equivalent of the Java language) but also managed version of C++ and Visual BASIC to name a few.
The compilers for the various .NET languages all generate the same common MSIL bytecode, so by the time that bytecode is
jitted( "just-in-time compilers" or simply "JIT". The microprocessor natively executes that "jitted" code.) by the CLR it has really become irrelevant which managed language it was compiled from. An open source version of .NET called Mono is also available.
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