MEF = Managed Extensibility Framework (and the CodePlex info)
MEF is targeted for making it easy to build extensibility into applications.
MEF is targeted to be a standard extensibility model.
Namespace System.ComponentModel...
MEF uses attributes [..] to declare Import and Export attributes (i.e. the extension points)
Export is "I offer this contract", Import is "I need an implementation of this contract".
MEF offers a concepts like Catalog and Container to manage and gather extensible Parts.
It seems like MEF has the potential to replace the extensibility support iTrade get from CAB/SCSF and EntLib on our GUI framework.
It also seems like MEF offers a lot of support that you would find in the Spring Framework.
How do MEF compare to IoC containers available for .Net (Unity, Windsor etc.)
- MEF focuses more on what you dont know, and allowing composition of that. IoC containers wire things that you already know together.
- MEF has aspects of IoC, but do not provide an IoC container
How do MEF compare to CAB?
- CAB and MEF do not compete. CAB is a much more extensive framework for building composite UI applications, while MEF is a more generic extensibility mechanism.
There seems to be no plan to change CAB's extensibility framework to CAB.
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KS made us aware of MEF some weeks ago, but I don't think anyone here have had a look at it yet. I guess it is especially interesting wrt dynamic module loading.
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