Apps Being Mirror Aware

most articles I read suggest that apps need to retry upon failure in a mirrored environment, using a different connection string, not worrying a whole lot about waiting for the retry. But I heard somewhere that the original connection string can also contain info about the mirrored db, thus eliminating the need to use two different connection strings, and perhaps not even needing to retry programatically. Which is correct? I also heard that programatic retry could be required anyway because of some bug involving the "first" failure and disappearance of a connection pool. Can someone just provide the 50,000 foot view of what it takes to make an app "mirror aware"?