Book Image

Metaprogramming in C#

By : Einar Ingebrigtsen
Book Image

Metaprogramming in C#

By: Einar Ingebrigtsen

Overview of this book

Metaprogramming is an advanced technique that helps developers to automate repetitive tasks, generate scalable code, and enhance productivity in software development. Metaprogramming in C# is a comprehensive guide that will help you reap the full potential of metaprogramming in .NET runtime. You’ll start by learning about the .NET runtime environment and how you can use it to become a more productive developer. You'll learn how to infer types using reflection, use attributes, and create dynamic proxies. You’ll also explore the use of expressions to create and execute code and how to take advantage of Dynamic Language Runtime. But that's not all! You’ll also learn to go beyond inheritance and use method signature conventions to create easily maintainable code. Finally, you’ll dive into the world of compiler magic with Roslyn, where you'll discover how to use Roslyn to generate code, perform static code analysis, and write your own compiler extensions. By the end of this book, you’ll have a deep understanding of metaprogramming concepts and how to apply them to your C# code. You’ll be able to think about types, use attributes and expressions to generate code, and apply crosscutting concerns to improve code quality.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Part 1:Why Metaprogramming?
5
Part 2:Leveraging the Runtime
12
Part 3:Increasing Productivity, Consistency, and Quality
18
Part 4:Compiler Magic Using Roslyn

Technical requirements

The source code specific to the chapter can be found on GitHub (https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Metaprogramming-in-C-Sharp/tree/main/Chapter11) and it builds on the Fundamentals code, which can be found at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Metaprogramming-in-C-Sharp/tree/main/Fundamentals.

The goal of the open-closed principle

In a world with ever-changing and growing requirements, newly discovered business opportunities, or even pivots for your business, it’s not very helpful if your software has to go through triple-bypass surgery for changes to be made. At the heart of an agile mindset sits the ability to be nimble and react to change in a timely fashion. From a business perspective, this is a type of elasticity that is very useful. The goal is to be cost-effective when changes come in. In projects or product developments that I’ve been part of, I’ve often noticed that this translates into an ad hoc mindset, and often a total...