If you say to any .NET programmer you use Spring.NET (that they know it exists is already good to hear) the discussion will head immediately into XML world. Yes they can be a pain but with a bit of discipline you can keep them structured and well maintained, though if I could choose I’d drop them too. The reason I’m still sticking to this framework is because it offers so much. DI, AoP, data access, messaging,… most applications I’ve created need at least some components from the Spring.NET stack.
Erich Eichinger has posted on CodeConfig and assembly scanning for Spring.NET a while ago and it is scheduled to be included in Spring.NET in the future. Go check it out.