*RESOLVED* .NET Namespaces

[Techno Learner]

The .NET namespace organization confuses me. I opened a new VB.NET Windows Application and headed for the object browser. It had things such as:

[list=1][*] mscorlib[*] Microsoft.VisualBasic[*] System[*] System.Data[*] System.Drawing[*] System.Windows.Forms[*] System.Xml[*] WindowsApplication1[/list=1]

While I know the entries (2) through (7) are .NET namespaces, what is the first entry mscorlib (I understand it is a deformation of Microsoft Core Library but what exactly is it - a namespace)?

Further, I opened the mscorlib node in the treeview to see other namespaces, some of which are:

[list=1][*] Microsoft[*] Microsoft.Win32[*] System[/list=1]

Opening the node System from within the mscorlib node showed me the classes within the System namespace.

However, opening the System node that is a sibling (and not the child) to the mscorlib class does not show the contained classes.

Why do they have the same namespace, System, twice - once as a child to mscorlib and once as a sibling?

And when System.Data is a reference to the Data namespace contained within the System namespace, would not setting a reference to just the System namespace take care of all contained namespaces including System.Data? Why do they have to seperately declare:

• System
• System.Data
• System.Drawing