Common Language Runtime

computing, Common Language Runtime (CLR) is a runtime environment enabling the exact same code called Common Intermediate Language to run on various computers such as Windows PCs, Unix machines and Macintoshes.

Microsoft's .NET implementation of the standardized Common Language Infrastructure is a CLR. It is a generalized multi-language execution engine (a virtual machine) on which code runs. Around twenty languages are currently (early 2002) supported. The Common Language Specification (CLS) describes a subset of the CLR, which language compilers should support to promote interoperability between languages.

See also: Common Language Infrastructure and Metadata, Runtime, Java programming language, Virtual machine