Cross-version compatibility and what to download from the site?

Always guaranteed backward compatibility!

The products that use the family contain the entire family or part of it. You can always replace the DLL-s packed with them with newer version of any or all the DLL-s of the AXPack1 family. The backward compatibility is carefully preserved across the versions even at the expense of of a little inconvenience (if something was initially released in a form that is not the best). If an important issue requires changes they are exposed as new method or object that duplicates the old, but the old one is retained for compatibility. Exceptions are possible only in case of critical issues which require the API to be changed (none up to the current version).

Some of the objects support modes or other configuration settings that may be used to tune their behavior. If certain object seems inconvenient take a look at the documentation to see if it supports behavior related properties that allow you configure it to behave as you prefer immediatelly after its creation.

Combined and separate downloads. 

When downloading separately from an application you can get the entire AXPack1 family in a ZIP containing the binaries only or an installer package for the corresponding platform. The installer packages always contain the Micro Script Host to allow you test the library and even write some simple applications with it even without more powerful COM based environment at hand. Of course, the full power of the family can be more easily employed when used with a development environment/tool that allows you implement complicated UI - such as Active Local Pages.

Thus the AXPack1 family download packages are of two types:

• Binaries only - ZIP files containing the DLL files and a readme file only. Use them when you need the binaries only - for update of a the redistribution packages of your applications that use the family, for update on your PC/device when you need to limit the download size and in other cases where you will want to replace/place/register the binary files manually.
• Installer packages - ZIP and SFX packages containing the family, the Micro Script Host (MSH) and a small set of samples. Some of the samples may be for another environments (not MSH). Use these packages when you want to install the family on a PC or device where it will be used from MSH or other applications, or when you want to update the existing family DLL-s on your PC/Device with the latest versions and continue using them from the products that employ them (e.g. ALP, ASPC and so on).

From the end of January 2005 the components of AXPack1 family are no longer distributed separately. For example from the NetStreams page you are directed to download the entire family not only the NetStreams DLL. This is intended to prevent confusion and the need to gather all the components you need one by one. The secondary DLL-s of the family depend on the core (newobjectsaxpack1.dll) therefore it must be always installed/distributed with them. If you want to distribute part of the family only with your product keep the core and remove any unnecessary DLL-s from your redistribution package(s). For example if you use SQLite COM but you have no network functions in your application you can remove the NetStreams.DLL from your redistribution.