Ice 2.1.0 and vb.net question

[mcrystal]

I've just installed the MSI for Ice 2.1.0 on Visual Studio .NET 2003 and could not find the icecs.dll that is referred to in the demos. I also did not see the slice2vb or slice2cs executables in the c:\Ice-2.1.0\bin directory. Is there another distribution that must be installed to obtain these files?

Also, from a compatibility perspective, will a VB.NET client which was written and compiled with ice 2.0.0 work against a (java) server which is running with ice 2.1.0 assuming the class definitions have not changed?


Thanks,
Mayer

[marc]

I can only answer the second part of your question, somebody else from ZeroC will answer the first part.

There are no problems with running an Ice 2.0 client with an Ice 2.1 server or vice versa, regardless of the language mappings being used for the client or the server. The Ice protocol has not bee changed since version 1.0, with the only exception being the marshaling for objects by value (changed in version 1.1) and facets (changed in version 1.4).

[cory]

Hopefully I can help you with the first question!

These files belong to the Ice for .NET, C# Development and Visual Basic Development features of the installer. In order to install these features successfully you must run the installer from a user account with Administrator privileges. As well, the Microsoft .NET 1.1 Framework must be installed on the target computer. These are requirements because the installer needs to install the Ice assemblies in the global assembly cache.

[mcrystal]

Thanks for the quick responses! Cory, regarding my first question regarding icecs.dll and the slice2vb/slice2cs executables, these files were successfully installed on the same machine in the 2.0.0 release of ice so I was curious as to why it didn't install it in the 2.1.0 version. Also, do you know if the MSI installer show me an exception if I did not have the proper rights to install the assemblies or would it silently ignote them? (Sorry for all the questions, but I am mainly a java/unix developer so am not overly familiar with the windows side of things)


Thanks again,
Mayer

[cory]

No problem regarding the questions! That's what we are here for!

I'm not positive but I think that the same requirements existed for the 2.0.0 installer and I suspect that the install would fail if the conditions weren't met. That said, the 2.1.0 installer will not show you an error dialog if the conditions for Ice for .NET are not met. There is a note on the "Setup Type" section of the installer wizard however. A more obvious indication will most likely be added in an future release. I apologize for any confusion.