Found several good(related) questions here and here but all are nearly a year old.
I will like to know in the current context of Prism development what is better or at least scenario where each is better.
+4
A:
They are two approaches to solving some-what overlapping scenarios.
Unity shines when you are developing a modular application where users will be using a subset of the modules and modules are self-contained.
MEF shines when you have a lot of 3rd party developers creating plug-ins for your application - or several development teams publishing plugins.
We started out with Prism for core functionality and will be adding MEF for Widget-type functionality later - the idea being that border-line/customerspecific functionality will be delivered in MEF-plugins.
Both frameworks are really easy to get started with (MEF probably a bit 'simpler' from the get-go).
In my oppinion it really depends more on how your development strategy is structured rather than the application in question.
Goblin
2010-09-17 13:34:35
Not sure I understand your point about Unity being best for subsetted applications. I don't see why MEF wouldn't be a great fit there, too. You would just ensure that only those pieces that the user has access to are downloaded/installed, and use MEF to discover and instantiate them.
Kent Boogaart
2010-09-17 15:33:07
@Kent - I only said that Unity shines here - not that MEF isn't applicable. It's two solutions for a common problem-set: "Building extendable loosely-coupled applications". My input is only based on my use of the two. Unity IMO better handles the 'overridden' functionality scenario.
Goblin
2010-09-17 17:09:25
@Goblin +1 for the same. @Goblin,@Kent-Boogaart:Thanks. Your comments rightly define my confusion. Each individual or blog post or documentation have something conflicting with others. I was looking for something which is specific. Eg. You need tea leaf to make a tea. You need coffee powder to make coffee. But everywhere they are talking about importance of milk and sugar.
Sachin
2010-09-18 04:09:04
+3
A:
Hi,
This thread also provides information about which one to use.
I hope you find it useful.
Thanks, Damian
Damian Schenkelman
2010-10-04 12:52:35