Program Architecture advice please

[TomS]

I am looking for advice on creating a solution that has the following:

1) There is a core piece of software that has all the user interface,
equipment drivers, data collection, etc. This piece of software will run
continuously.

2) There are 100's of small applications that the user can select which can
be run. These small applications would need to have access to the user
interface, equipment drivers, data collection, etc. of the core program.
All the small applications will have a the same public sub and function
names, such as Initialize(), Run(), and CleanUp(). Each will do something
different, but the software interface will be the same.

3) Ideally, the core software will be compiled and left alone. The small
applications will be dynamically loaded by the core software as needed and
then discarded once a new application is selected. Any number of
applications can be developed independently of the core software (i.e.. not
having to re-compile the core software to include the new applications).

The current system is written in HTBasic (HPBasic/Rocky Mountain Basic).
This version of basic has the, hopefully not unique, ability to loadsub and
delsub pieces of program code programmatically.

Is there a way to load and unload pieces of code in VB.net? Is there a way
to do it without having to re-build the main routine, assuming there is a
way to tell the core software what the list of possible applications are?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[m.posseth]

Well as .Net is very flexible in dynamicly loading assembly`s there are
lots of methods you may use depending on your needs

the scenario you describe , will only need an interface ( as all methods are
the same ) and then dynamicly load the assembly wich can be done with
reflection , or even remoting ( then these assembly`s can even be hosted
on another system )


regards

Michel Posseth