Hi Patrick,
I'm not sure I understand the "reference by assembly" issue. Do you mean that I should add a reference to an assembly by browsing to its output location (using 'Add Reference'-->'Browse' dialog)? if so, how do you distinguish between release/debug modes?

Thanks!

Another issue with multiple assemblies to add under the list in section "Why create another .NET assembly?" is obfuscation. The more assemblies you have the more effort you have to put into obfuscation development and testing.

>I'm not sure I understand the "reference by assembly" issue. Do you mean that I should add a reference to an assembly by browsing to its output location (using 'Add Reference'-->'Browse' dialog)?

Yes, you need to browse the Debug version of the assembly, that typically contains the public API of the Release version of the assembly.


>if so, how do you distinguish between release/debug modes?

There is no need to distinguish. A Release assembly is compiled by referencing the Debug assemblies already compiled. This doesn't provoke any problem since the Debug version of an assembly referenced contains the public API of the Release version of the assembly .

>The more assemblies you have the more effort you have to put into obfuscation development and testing.

100% agree. Whatever the obfuscation technology used, it is a sensitive process to set up the obfuscation process right. And the more assemblies are obfuscated, the more error prone is this process.

In my experience, once you've configured the output path to be a common folder it's not necessary to also set CopyLocal=false. VS is intelligent enough to see that the referenced project assembly has already been placed in the output path and so doesn't copy it again.

Am I wrong?

It is simple for Silverlight.
You should use another shared folder for projects under the "Silverlight .Net Framework".
For example the "..\bin" and any "..\binSilverlight" for Silverlight project and his class libraries.
Usually Silverlight means other tier (Cllient logic) in same solution with a Web-Server tier (ASP.NET). That is why you must use different shared folders too.

I'm using project references w/ copy local false, hence getting the build order for free plus no copies. Imho, this is the best combination, any reasons why you recommend using assembly references?
Thanks,
Juan

I'm using project references w/ copy local false, hence getting the build order for free plus no copies. Imho, this is the best combination, any reasons why you recommend using assembly references?
Thanks,
Juan