Referencing an Exe from another Exe

12 Apr 2005 11:44 AM

Nice Chap

I know this is NOT possible in Visual Studio but some how Sharp Develop can
do it !! any thoughts...

12 Apr 2005 2:22 PM

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]

"Nice Chap" <NiceC***@PlasmaDyne.com> schrieb:
>I know this is NOT possible in Visual Studio but some how Sharp Develop can
>do it !! any thoughts...

From a technical standpoint that should not be a problem, but it stands
against the concept of /libraries/, which are not executables.

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

12 Apr 2005 2:40 PM

Oenone

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP] wrote:

> From a technical standpoint that should not be a problem, but it
> stands against the concept of /libraries/, which are not executables.

It's a shame though.

I have an .exe application which calls into various plug-in DLLs. It
provides an instance of a class within the .exe so that the plug-ins can
query properties from the application and invoke methods upon it.

In VB.NET I am unable to early-bind to this object as I can't reference the
..exe. Instead I have to either late-bind (which I'd really rather not do) or
move my classes to a separate .DLL, which will fragment my application.

Is there a work-around for this?

--

(O)enone

12 Apr 2005 5:04 PM

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]

Show quote Hide quote

"Oenone" <oen***@nowhere.com> schrieb:
>> From a technical standpoint that should not be a problem, but it
>> stands against the concept of /libraries/, which are not executables.
>
> It's a shame though.
>
> I have an .exe application which calls into various plug-in DLLs. It
> provides an instance of a class within the .exe so that the plug-ins can
> query properties from the application and invoke methods upon it.
>
> In VB.NET I am unable to early-bind to this object as I can't reference
> the .exe. Instead I have to either late-bind (which I'd really rather not
> do) or move my classes to a separate .DLL, which will fragment my
> application.
>
> Is there a work-around for this?

VS 2005 ("Whidbey") will support references to executable files.

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

13 Apr 2005 9:25 AM

Nice Chap

I presume the Exe will be treated as a library of types rather than an
executable. What I mean is, CLR may not 'run' the referenced exe but allow
us to create instances of types within the referenced exe.

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"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hirf-spam-me-here@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:eUhY%23G4PFHA.4024@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> "Oenone" <oen***@nowhere.com> schrieb:
>>> From a technical standpoint that should not be a problem, but it
>>> stands against the concept of /libraries/, which are not executables.
>>
>> It's a shame though.
>>
>> I have an .exe application which calls into various plug-in DLLs. It
>> provides an instance of a class within the .exe so that the plug-ins can
>> query properties from the application and invoke methods upon it.
>>
>> In VB.NET I am unable to early-bind to this object as I can't reference
>> the .exe. Instead I have to either late-bind (which I'd really rather not
>> do) or move my classes to a separate .DLL, which will fragment my
>> application.
>>
>> Is there a work-around for this?
>
> VS 2005 ("Whidbey") will support references to executable files.
>
> --
> M S Herfried K. Wagner
> M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
> V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

13 Apr 2005 4:17 PM

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]

"Nice Chap" <NiceC***@PlasmaDyne.com> schrieb:
>I presume the Exe will be treated as a library of types rather than an
>executable. What I mean is, CLR may not 'run' the referenced exe but allow
>us to create instances of types within the referenced exe.

Yes, by setting a reference to an EXE file in VS 2005 the EXE file will be
treated as a library.

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>