ASP.NET Assemblies

Playing an important role in .NET development, .NET Assemblies are a partially compiled library for use in deployment, versioning and security.

Characteristics include:

1. Assemblies are self describing in nature.
2. They can be executed side by side without versioning problems.
3. Two or more applications can run independently inside a single process with processes separated via the application domains.
4. In case of private assemblies, installation is as simple as copying the files into the file system organization.

Assemblies are of two types:

1. Private Assembly. Private assemblies are intended for a particular application and are typically stored in the application.
2. 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.