.NET namespaces

Question

My background is primarily as a Java Developer, but lately I have been doing some work in .NET. So I have been trying to do some simple projects at home to get better at wor

Answer 1

Namespaces are a logical grouping, while projects are a physical grouping.

Why is this important? Think about .NET 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5. .NET 3.0 is basically .NET 2.0 with some extra assemblies, and 3.5 adds a few more assemblies. So for instance, .NET 3.5 adds the DataPager control, which is a web control and should be grouped in System.Web.UI.WebControls. If namespaces and physical locations were identical, it couldn't be because it's in a different assembly.

So having namespaces as independent logical entities means you can have members of several different assemblies which are all logically grouped together because they're meant to be used in conjunction with each other.

(Also, there's nothing wrong with having your physical and logical layouts pretty similar.)