Question

I’m very interested in the CachedAssemblyCatalog class introduced in the samples provided in older versions of MEF – which allows loading a small assembly containing just the export data instead of the entire assembly, and only loading the full assembly when a part from that assembly is required.

I’d like to use this feature in my application, but I’m not really sure about the stability/reliability of this code, and whether there are any future plans regarding this feature. Is it scheduled to become an integral part of MEF anytime soon, or at all?

Has anyone used this this code in his application and can share his impressions? Is it stable? Is it working as expected? I’m a bit discouraged by the fact that there is practically no data available for this type of catalog on Google and by the fact that the caching sample no longer appears in the currently available samples.

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Got a short answer for this @ MEF’s forums.

We haven’t been actively maintaining this sample, and don’t consider
it stable. Hopefully it is of some use to you, but we don’t have any
plan to update or further develop it.

Not really what I was hoping for. I think this could be a really useful feature.

EDIT: I’ve ended up implementing this myself and making it available on GitHub