I'm architecting how multiple WinForm applications running on the same workstation will share AppStylist ISL files, and to do so, I need to understand how tightly coupled any particular ISL file is with a specific version of the Infragistics WinForm controls.

For example, suppose I have one product using your version 8.1, another using version 8.2, and another using your (forthcoming) version 9.0 WinForm controls, all on the same PC. If the contents of ISL files are tightly bound to a specific version of the WinForm controls, I would architect it so that each product uses its own separate copies of ISL files, with each tied to that version of the Infragistics WinForm controls.

But if there's a loose coupling between the ISL files and the WinForm controls (by version), I would just have all these products share the same ISL files, with these ISL files updated to using the latest vesion of AppStylist.

I would define loose coupling here as meaning (a) if the controls DLLs were *older* than the ISL file, the controls would ignore anything in the ISL file that they weren't looking for (and didn't understand), and (b) if the controls DLLs were *newer* than the ISL file and didn't find a value in the ISL for a particular styled setting, they would assume default values. In other words the controls wouldn't blow up if the ISL files were older or newer than the controls.

I'm hoping for that kind of loose coupling. I don't see a version number inside the ISL file, so that gives me hope. :)

Could you please let me know how loosely or tightly coupled the ISL files are with each version of the WinForm controls?

Thanks for your help!

Jim Honeycutt