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

Implicit – using what is already there

The compiler that compiles C# parses all our code and ends up creating what is referred to as IL-code, short for Intermediate Language code. This is standardized and part of the ECMA-335 standard for the Common Language Infrastructure. You can read more about the standard here: https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-335/. This type of code is not something that the CPU in the system understands and it requires another step for the CPU to understand it. The last step of translation is done when we run our programs and the .NET runtime takes over, interprets the IL, and generates the necessary instructions for the CPU type of the computer the program is running on.

Looking at the binary output, you can’t necessarily tell the difference. But by opening up the binary using a decompiler tool such as ildasm, or something more visual, such as JetBrains dotPeek (https://www.jetbrains.com/decompiler...