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A Model of Dynamic Binding in .NET

  • Conference paper
Component Deployment (CD 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 3798))

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Abstract

Millions of programmers use ECMA CLI-compliant languages like VB.NET and C#. The resulting bytecode can be executed on several CLI implementations, such as those from Microsoft and the open-source Mono organisation. While assemblies are the standard unit of deployment, no standard exists for the process of finding and loading assemblies at run-time. The process is typically complex, and varies between CLI implementations. Unlike other linking stages, such as verification, it is visible to programmers and can be a source of confusion.

We offer a framework that describes how assemblies are resolved, loaded and used in CLI implementations. We strive for implementation-independence and note how implementations from different organisations vary in behaviour. We describe the reflection features available for dynamic loading, and give C# examples that exercise the features modelled in the framework.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Imperial College London,  

    Alex Buckley

Authors
  1. Alex Buckley
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, Fife KY16 9SX, St Andrews, Scotland

    Alan Dearle

  2. Imperial College London,  

    Susan Eisenbach

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Buckley, A. (2005). A Model of Dynamic Binding in .NET. In: Dearle, A., Eisenbach, S. (eds) Component Deployment. CD 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3798. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11590712_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11590712_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-30517-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32281-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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