Versioning of constants and static readonly fields

Constants and readonly fields have different binary versioning semantics. When an expression references a constant, the value of the constant is obtained at compile-time, but when an expression references a readonly field, the value of the field is not obtained until run-time. [Example: Consider an application that consists of two separate programs: using System; namespace Program1 { public class Utils { public static readonly int X = 1; } } namespace Program2 { class Test { static void Main() { Console.WriteLine(Program1.Utils.X); } } }
The Program1 and Program2 namespaces denote two programs that are compiled separately. Because Program1.Utils.X is declared as a static readonly field, the value output by the Console.WriteLine statement is not known at compile-time, but rather is obtained at run-time. Thus, if the value of X is changed and Program1 is recompiled, the Console.WriteLine statement will output the new value even if Program2 isn't recompiled. However, had X been a constant, the value of X would have been obtained at the time Program2 was compiled, and would remain unaffected by changes in Program1 until Program2 is recompiled. end example]