.net - Why is GUID attribute needed in the first place?

Question

What is the necessity for the GUID attribute? why don't just let the compiler handle this automatically?!

Answer 1

If the compiler handled this automatically, you'd end up with one of two situations.

• A new GUID every time you compiled - since GUIDs are supposed to be published, this would fail.

• Collisions - if the GUID was the same every time, based on (say) a Hash of the name, multiple projects would end up using the same GUID for different purposes.

The existing approach - an explicit GUID gives developers the power to control these as required.