On Fri, 2009-02-06 at 10:52 -0700, Ryan Heaton wrote: > Interesting. How exactly does an API get identified as "stable"? Some > kind of compiler flag?
By the author saying that it's stable, signing the assembly (see sn(1)), and installing it into the GAC (gacutil /i, which requires that the assembly be signed). > And how does one install a stable assembly into the GAC? gacutil /i. > Just curious; I doubt I'll be using the GAC. The GAC should not be used lightly. Placing an assembly into the GAC is saying "the public API will never change [for this primary version] in an incompatible manner." Thus, for example, you can't rename existing types or members, or change the accessibility of members from public to non-public, change the types of members (e.g. field to a property), etc. Any of which may be needed for "cleanliness" reasons, bug fixes, and the like. Which isn't to say that the GAC shouldn't be used -- Gtk# has a stable API, and certainly should use the GAC to simplify dependencies for other applications -- but some care and thought needs to be used before deciding to place assemblies into the GAC. - Jon _______________________________________________ Mono-list maillist - [email protected] http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-list
