.NET: with respect to AssemblyVersion, what defines binary compatibility?

Question

What changes to a strong-named assembly necessitate a change in AssemblyVersionAttribute? Clearly, changing the public api in a way that could require a client to have to make a

Answer 1

It's pretty easy... as long as Types remain unchanged (in their public or protected layout) and method signatures are not changed (adding methods or types is fine), the JIT should be able to link the DLL just fine.

That said, I think that even if it does work you should not do this. Make a new version and use a policy to map the old version to the new one, if required. Otherwise you drive yourself straight back to DLL hell... and I'm pretty sure you don't want that.