Globally Accessible Class Without Need For Recompilation

[TunaAdmiral]

Here's a noob question for you.

Lets say I have written an email class that is used by hundreds of programs. It's easy enough to add a reference to this class in each program, but what happens if I change the email class 6 months down the road? Do I have to recompile EVERY program that references this class?

Is there a way to roll-out a stand-alone class that can be referenced by hundreds of programs without the need for recompilation everytime a change is made?

Is creating the e-mail class as part of a program that can be called from the hundreds of other programs the only option?

Any help would be appreciated.

- Mikeymac

 

[earthandfire]

Have a lok at Reflection, which should enable you to do what you need.


Hope this helps.

 

[earthandfire]

By the way, [tt]lok[/tt] should have been [tt]look[/tt].

 

[TunaAdmiral]

Thanks for the speedy reply, earthandfire! I've heard of this....Reflection...but haven't taken a good, hard lok at it.

Again, thanks!

 

[chrissie1]

Is this class in a seperate class library(dll)? Do you work with interfaces? As long as the interfaces don't change and you have it in a seperate dll then you can just give them the new dll. If however you make a change that will change the way in which the other programs talk to your class then evereything will need a rewrite and a recompilation. If you only change the implementation then you just need to copy the new dll to the new computer.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My new site" - Me

 

[TunaAdmiral]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Christiaan!