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Assembly in .NET
Posted Date: 15 Oct 2008 Resource Type: Definitions Category: General
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Posted By: Pradeep Y Member Level: Gold
Rating:  Points: 4
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Assemblies are the building blocks of .NET Framework applications; they form
the fundamental unit of deployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping,
and security permissions. An assembly is a collection of types and resources
that are built to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. An
assembly provides the common language runtime with the information it
needs to be aware of type implementations. To the runtime, a type does not
exist outside the context of an assembly.
Assemblies are a fundamental part of programming with the .NET Framework.
An assembly performs the following functions:
It contains code that the common language runtime executes. Microsoft
intermediate language (MSIL) code in a portable executable (PE) file will not
be executed if it does not have an associated assembly manifest. Note that
each assembly can have only one entry point (that is, DllMain, WinMain, or
Main).
It forms a security boundary. An assembly is the unit at which permissions are
requested and granted.
It forms a type boundary. Every type's identity includes the name of the
assembly in which it resides. A type called MyType loaded in the scope of one
assembly is not the same as a type called MyType loaded in the scope of
another assembly.
It forms a reference scope boundary. The assembly's manifest contains
assembly metadata that is used for resolving types and satisfying resource
requests. It specifies the types and resources that are exposed outside the
assembly. The manifest also enumerates other assemblies on which it
depends.
It forms a version boundary. The assembly is the smallest versionable unit in
the common language runtime; all types and resources in the same assembly
are versioned as a unit. The assembly's manifest describes the version
dependencies you specify for any dependent assemblies.
It forms a deployment unit. When an application starts, only the assemblies
that the application initially calls must be present. Other assemblies, such as
localization resources or assemblies containing utility classes, can be retrieved
on demand. This allows applications to be kept simple and thin when first
downloaded.
It is the unit at which side-by-side execution is supported.
Assemblies can be static or dynamic. Static assemblies can include .NET Framework types (interfaces and classes), as well as resources for the assembly (bitmaps, JPEG files, resource files, and so on). Static assemblies are stored on disk in PE files. You can also use the .NET Framework to create dynamic assemblies, which are run directly from memory and are not saved to disk before execution. You can save dynamic assemblies to disk after they have executed.
There are several ways to create assemblies. You can use development tools, such as Visual Studio .NET, that you have used in the past to create .dll or .exe files. You can use tools provided in the .NET Framework SDK to create assemblies with modules created in other development environments. You can also use common language runtime APIs, such as Reflection.Emit, to create dynamic assemblies.
Regards,
Pradeep Y
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Responses
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| Author: lingesh 17 Oct 2008 | Member Level: Silver Points : 0 | good pradeep..
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