title: Switching a solution between assembly references and project references
body: <p>We have a .NET 4.0 solution which contains a <a href="http://www.silverfrost.com/11/ftn95/ftn95_fortran_95_for_windows.aspx" rel="nofollow">Fortran 95 for Windows</a> project whose output is a managed DLL. The solution builds a Winforms app which uses this managed DLL.</p>
  
  <p>The Visual Studio plugin which supports the <code>.ftn95p</code> project type is flaky at best, for example, it uses absolute paths to source code files which have to be fixed up in a pre-build script - which causes its own problems to do with project file reloading - all sorts of modal dialogues get thrown during the build, which is no fun for a developer who doesn't need to ever touch the Fortran source.</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to think of ways to smooth out the process of building the solution on a clean machine.</p>
  
  <p>I have built the Fortran DLL manually, and added a reference to it where required in the other projects, removed the Fortran project entirely, and everything works perfectly.</p>
  
  <p>However there are some developers that will need to have the whole solution, as it is now, with the Fortran project loaded into the IDE.</p>
  
  <p>I am looking for ideas on how we can better support both classes of developer:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>those who need to touch the Fortran (who will just have to continue putting up with the flaky build</li>
  <li>those who never need to touch the Fortran (who would benefit from never having to deal with the Fortran plugin's weirdness)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I have already considered two solutions, but there are maintenance/sync issues there. Could we leverage Build Configurations in a clever way? I can't think how, but it's a possibility. </p>