Playing an important role in .NET development, .NET Assemblies are a partially compiled library for use in deployment, versioning and security.
Characteristics include:
- Assemblies are self describing in nature.
- They can be executed side by side without versioning problems.
- Two or more applications can run independently inside a single process with processes separated via the application domains.
- In case of private assemblies, installation is as simple as copying the files into the file system organization.
Assemblies are of two types:
- Private Assembly. Private assemblies are intended for a particular application and are typically stored in the application.
- Shared Assembly. Shared assemblies are stored in the global assembly cache (GAC) and are shared by many applications. Because they are global, each assembly must have a distinct or unique name.