.NET Framework 4: Fixing PIA Pains with Type Equivalence

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In this 12-minute video, you'll learn how "type equivalence" in the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 addresses the pain points normally associated with Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs) and COM Interop.

See https://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-25-Fixing-PIA-Pains-with-Type-Equivalence.

Highlights:

  • 02:05 Pain point: Can't assume that the global assembly cache (GAC) is already installed on an end user's computer, so it's typically left up to add-ins to take on the responsibility for deploying the correct PIA. But those PIAs can be quite large.
  • 05:21 "No PIA" addresses this by embedding into add-ins only the portions of the PIA that add-ins actually use.
  • 06:42 Demo: References are made from a project to the Word and Excel PIAs. The Embed Interop Types property is set to True for these referenced PIAs.
  • 08:04 Now the portions of the PIA that are needed for the add-in are embedded as namespaces in the project itself.