Assemblies Vs. DLLs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Dear Folks,

Most documentation say that Assemblies are logical DLLs. really
getting confused about the assemblies and DLLs. can any one of u help me to
get a clear distinction between assemblies and DLLs. whts the demarcation
line lying between the assemblies and DLLs

Regards,
 
Theoretically, C# compiler can produce multi-file assemblies, that is
assemblies consisting of several physical DLLs. All internal types in such
assemblies are visible throughout the (logical) assembly, even if the client
code is physically residing in another DLL. But I never saw a multi-file
assembly and VS.NET can't produce them.

So, it won't be too much of the oversimplification to say that Assembly ==
DLL | EXE.

HTH,
Alexander
 
Hi,
Assemblies are not LOGICAL DLLs but they are LOGICAL COMPILED UNIT which may
contain .Net TYPEs (class, structure, enum anything), Metadata and much
more.

An single file assemblies may have a single DLL or EXE but multi-file
assemblies may have multiple DLLs and other files in one assembly.

HTH,
Mahesh Devjibhai Dhola
"Empower yourself..."
 
A DLL (or EXE) is a unit of physically deployable code.

An assembly is an abstract concept. There is not necessarily a 1-to-1
relationship between an assembly and a physical item in your file system
(although most assemblies ARE just a single file in your file system).
It is a grouping of modules that should be treated with the same
security and version. You cannot create security policies, or version
information, for a unit smaller than an assembly.

Joshua Flanagan
http://flimflan.com/blog
 
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