What? Again?? But nevertheless a good item for those unaware of Microsoft"s upcoming solution.
Microsoft is hoping to end when has become known as DLL Hell by building into Windows Server 2003 a system that will stop updated DLLs installed by new applications from overwriting older versions of the same DLLs that may still be used by existing applications.
Microsoft .Net 1.1, which will be integral to the new Windows Server 2003 operating systems, will support what the company calls strong binding, said Ivo Salmre, .Net and developer tools and technology manager at Microsoft. "Strong binding means an application or component can bind to a specific version of another component, so you can reuse components or use them in isolation."
.Net 1.1 will provide Windows Server 2003 operating systems with what Microsoft calls a Global Assembly Cache. This Cache is a repository for all the .Net components that are shared globally on a particular computer. "When a .Net component is installed onto the machine, the Global Assembly Cache looks at its version, its public key, its language information and creates a strong name for the component," said Salme. The component is then registered in the repository and indexed by its strong name, so there is -- in theory at least -- no confusion between different versions of the same component, or DLL.