>>>Managed Extensibility Framework. It is not really a framework but a mechanism for extending .NET (hence the name). It falls into a category called inversion of control or dependency injection. The gist of it is compliant helpers are discovered at runtime. One of the most memorable demos I have ever seen was a couple of years ago at a .NET user group meeting. The presenter showed a simplified app which used MEF. It used a Windows timer call to discover files in a given folder. The folder consisted of pictures of animals. He added a picture of an elephant and voila, an elephant appeared on the form. No code change, no recompilation. Now that was cool.
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>>Thanks, but I believe this is something we could do since about 20 years.
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>Possible, but not easy.
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> Unless I am missing something. :(
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>Mike's example is a simple demonstration. Imagine dropping a DLL into a folder and having it immediately incorporated into an already running application - adding it's own menu, toolbar etc on the fly. Delete it and the functionality is gone.
Just from the little I've worked with it in the course of wrapping my head around Prism both Unity 2.0 and MEF are very cool. Especially useful in scenarios where dlls need to be augmented or swapped out live based on upgrade etc. This modular approach can indeed be a godsend in certain use-cases.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
