What Is MathLink?

MathLink is a platform-independent protocol for communicating between programs. In more concrete terms, it is a means to send and receive Mathematica expressions. MathLink is the means by which the notebook front end and kernel communicate with each other. It is also used by a large number of commercial and freeware applications and utilities that link Mathematica and other programs or languages. It is implemented as a library of C-language functions. .NET/Link brings the capabilities of MathLink into .NET in a way that is simpler to use and much more powerful than the raw C-level API.