Re: Forcing an application to load assemblies from a specific path

> Did the application work in Vista? Yes.
> Does the application work in Windows 7? No.
> Can you do anything to fix it? No, other than DEVPATH hacks.
> Is it the fault of the application? Of course.

And it is NOT a solvable problem _for Microsoft_.  The only way we get
rid of bad programs is to get rid of bad programmers. Vote with your
feet and get away from that product.

> And I think this last point is what gets everyone upset. But from the
> perspective of an end user, does it matter?

It should.  You don't sue General Motors when your car dies because
someone at the local gas station put diesel in the gas tank.  The
problem here is someone is DOING something wrong, and it isn't the
framework guys.

> As a user, I want the application to run, not find someone to blame.

But you ARE blaming someone. You're blaming Microsoft for changing the
framework.  Problem is, you're ignoring the two other people at fault:

1) The application author, for coding it wrong.
2) Yourself, for upgrading your OS to an unsupported OS _for that application_.

> What I expect is that .NET applications should provide a certain degree of
>  insulation from the underlying platform,

As someone who has been programming Windows applications since Windows
2.0, and PC applications since 1981 I can GUARANTEE that the .Net
application provide a  _HUGE_ degree of insulation from the platform.

> and when a bad application comes along, the user should
> be able to install the version of the framework that was used
> to compile the application and run it.

I think you should just run a VM if thats what you want.  That's what
XP mode in Win 7 is for...

> That is all.

That is _too much_.  I regularly joke "Intel and Microsoft, putting
the backwards in backwards-compatible". I'm glad they're finally
stripping away some of the legacy stuff.  It hurts performance,
testability and managability far too much already.

-- 
Marc C. Brooks
http://musingmarc.blogspot.com

NOT sent from an iPhone

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