My understanding is that the type is defined with reference to the namespace from which it is exposed and the namespace does not neccessarily correspond to the assembly name ie namespaces can span assemblies so one could conceivably define the same type in two different assemblies.
I do support your sentiments re building and version controlling PIAs - something that appears to be somewhat undocumented. regards -----Original Message----- From: Moderated discussion of advanced .NET topics. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of J. Merrill Sent: 10 January 2004 01:35 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Best way to share an interface definition amoung components tier At 01:05 PM 1/9/2004, Eric Gunnerson wrote (in part) >My two cents... >[snip] >It's also nice >because it makes sure the interface doesn't show up in multiple >assemblies, which can cause some hard-to-troubleshoot bugs. That's because the IWhatever interface defined in assembly A is a different interface than the IWhatever interface defined in assembly B, even if everything about the definition of those interfaces matches 100% (exact same parent interface [if any], exact same member names in the exact same order, every member routine and event having the exact same parameters and [not for events] result). An interface is a type, and the full name of a type includes the assembly in which it's defined. A similar issue exists with COM wrappers -- if no one builds a "primary interop assembly" (PIA) for a particular COM component, you can end up with multiple interop assemblies that have the same definition (based on a particular COM component) but they are NOT the same type, because they're defined in different assemblies. If you -- for example -- write a class that inherits from one of those interop assemblies, and the client machine has only the other interop assembly on his machine, your assembly won't load. Every COM component that doesn't have a PIA is an accident waiting to happen. Ditto with any interface defined -- even identically -- in more than one place. J. Merrill / Analytical Software Corp =================================== This list is hosted by DevelopMentor. http://www.develop.com Some .NET courses you may be interested in: NEW! Guerrilla ASP.NET, 26 Jan 2004, in Los Angeles http://www.develop.com/courses/gaspdotnetls View archives and manage your subscription(s) at http://discuss.develop.com =================================== This list is hosted by DevelopMentorŪ http://www.develop.com Some .NET courses you may be interested in: NEW! Guerrilla ASP.NET, 26 Jan 2004, in Los Angeles http://www.develop.com/courses/gaspdotnetls View archives and manage your subscription(s) at http://discuss.develop.com
