.NET Framework Developer Center >
.NET Development Forums
>
Managed Extensibility Framework
>
Comparison to the AddIn libraries?
Comparison to the AddIn libraries?
- 0Hi,
How does this fit in with the AddIn classes that are part of the .NET base class library? I was looking for a feature document that described what MEF did so I could compare.
Cheers,
Gordon.
Gordon
Answers
- 0Thanks for your question!
These technologies can be perceived as complimentary. While both of them provide activation support, support System.AddIn-s technology focuses on versioning and isolation (multiple AppDomain support) while the focus of MEF is dependency injection through Import-Export mechanism, loose type matching and metadata around components.
>>I was looking for a feature document that described what MEF did so I could compare.
At this point I would recommend skimming through .chm file included in the CTP zip. It has HelloWorld and Calculator walkthrough which illustrates MEF features.
It's good feedback though - we should have all MEF features with short descriptions outlined somewhere. Right now the blogs (David has the list of team blogs in the previous post) is the best resource. One example is this post on kcwalina's blog.
Alex
Alex Bulankou, Microsoft Corporation. This posting is provided "AS IS".- Marked As Answer byGordonTWatts Friday, June 06, 2008 9:41 AM
- Proposed As Answer byDavid M. KeanMSFT, OwnerThursday, June 05, 2008 11:03 PM
All Replies
- 0Alex,
Thanks. I've started to look at the blog posting - I'll try the chm file later on.
One difference is this looks like it is aimed at the developer, where as the AddIn namespace is aimed at people who want to support third party external add-ins. The MEF seems like it will better support modular applications - external services and the like - that a developer puts together.
Cheers,
Gordon.
Gordon - 0Ok, I've realized there's no .chm, we ended up putting the help content under doc folder in the zip.
GordonTWatts said:
One difference is this looks like it is aimed at the developer, where as the AddIn namespace is aimed at people who want to support third party external add-ins. The MEF seems like it will better support modular applications - external services and the like - that a developer puts together.
Well, I'd say we probably would like to be positioned as a more generic higher level component model for both modular applications AND external add-ins. AS of this CTP however, MEF does not yet offer a story for versioning and isolation and it does not offer a concrete scenario how MEF can integrate with MAF to obtain this isolation support.
Alex Bulankou, Microsoft Corporation. This posting is provided "AS IS".
