Question : Solution vs. Project

After many years of working in a Java environment, I'm working with a small team of C# developers.  We have several different applications that will share some common code.  In my Java experience, this is handled by separate applications, that share a jar file for the common code.  In the .Net world, my suggestion is to create multiple Windows form applications, and then create an application for the common code that will build as a .dll.  The .dll can be shared by the Winform applicaitons.

There is another suggested approach that puts all the code into a single solution, with each Winform application as a project, and the common code also as a separate project.

Am I wrong to think that since the Winform applications have nothing to do with one another they should be separate solutions.  And that the common code should be a separate solution.  As development is done on the common code, it can be checked into the SVN repository.  Only when the common code is ready for a releaase, should the revised dll be made available to the other applications.

Answer : Solution vs. Project

Some people will use solutions to group multiple unrelated projects that use the same custom framework libraries to make some things easier.  By framework I mean a set of custom class libraries built by you that can be used by your applications.  When you have an immature framework you have so many frequent changes that it may be beneficial to have it in the same solution as a front-end application.

However, at some point the framework should become pretty stable and I recommend it be put into its own solution.  This will allow different programs to use different versions of the library (in case of backward compatibility issues, etc).  Also, you are right, at this point there should releases of the framework to support the needs of the applications....but they should be in their own solutions (IMO).