Visual Basic® .NET Power Coding

Considering a Generic Application Loader

An application loader is an executable assembly that contains just enough code to request other code from some remote location. The remote location may be an intranet server at your company or a Web site on the other side of the planet. All an application loader has to do is download one root assembly. If this root assembly refers to all other assemblies that your application needs, then when those assemblies are actually needed the root will contain a reference to their location. This reference to other assemblies will cause associated assemblies to be downloaded when the root assembly refers to them. As a result you can permit clients to download a very small application loader (an executable) from a ...