The .Net Framework, an implementation of the CLI

Common Language Infrastructure
Standard ECMA-335
ISO/IEC 23271:2012

All compatible languages must compile to CIL

The platform specific "virtual machine" will compile the CIL code to machine code

Common Language Runtime, .Net's virtual machine

Links

• msdn.microsoft.com/en-us overview
• msdn.microsoft.com getting tarted
• codemyne
• CLI
• I wrote a blog post about the CLI