I have a C# interface, IFoo, which can be implemented by multiple parties in multiple projects. What I want to do is version the interface so that I can identify which version of the interface an implementation was developed against.
Is there a preferred/conventional way of doing this? I thought about putting a read-only InterfaceVersion property into the interface spec, but that can be defined by the implementer, not by me as the designer of the interface, and so isn't what I want.
This is a very complicated topic when you consider the full impact of various decisions. I have started the process of documenting this in the following topic:
Assembly Versioning in Extensible Applications
This document focuses on Visual Studio 2010 and newer, which is itself an extensible application with multiple versions released to date. The extension mechanism in place is MEF, but the rules and restrictions it imposes still apply to other extension mechanisms.
This document is a work-in-progress. Suggestions and/or problems can be reported on the issue tracker.
Typically one doesn't version an interface because it is considered a contract (and contracts should be enforced not broken). Typically a new interface is created with the new functionality (IFoo2 perhaps) and classes that need to participate in the new contract will then implement that.
public class Foo : IFoo, IFoo2
{
// Implementation goes here
}
but that can be defined by the implementer, not by me as the designer
of the interface, and so isn't what I want
This passage contains the answer to your own question. What you want is something that can only be defined by you (the designer), so it has to be something 100% contained in the assemblies you provide. Assemblies contain types, therefore this something must be a type.
Obviously you cannot change any interface after you have shipped it (that would break the code all your clients), so the only option remaining is to define a new interface. Implementers can then opt-in to the new version by choosing to implement it.
Related
When writing an VSIX and you want to access information about the given solution you can simply do DTE2.Solution which will return Solution, so far so good. When looking at the MSDN I can see that there exist multiple solution interfaces: Solution, Solution2, Solution3 and Solution4.
I noticed that the VSIX SDK rather often does this, for whatever reason, in order to offer different functionality. In this case I can't really spot any big difference and I am not really sure when I should use which. Should you always go for Solution4 since it implements all the predecessors?
... for whatever reason, in order to offer different functionality
These are COM interfaces so they're subject to COM rules. Once an interface is published, it is immutable, so adding functionality is done by defining a new interface that inherits from the old.
Numeric suffixes were the convention Microsoft used for versioning COM interfaces. .NET guidelines for interfaces advise against this but, for consistency, the pattern continues in Visual Studio.
Querying a COM interface involves reference counting. That means a call to QueryInterface to get a pointer to the desired interface, and ultimately a call to Release to tell the object you no longer need the reference. The object itself is responsible for its lifetime. The constructor (called by the object's class factory) starts its reference count at 1, and Release deallocates the memory (deletes itself) when the reference count hits 0.
Note that "reference" in this context is not the same as a .NET reference. It's a counted copy of a pointer to one of the object's interfaces.
In the early days, it took a bit of work to make sure you handled the reference correctly. If you can query a newer interface with the combined functionality, that was less work than querying both interfaces separately and ensuring that both were released properly. Inheriting an interface made things easier by reducing reference management.
Now, we have smart pointers, like CComPtr/_com_ptr_t, that can handle those details for you. In the managed world, Runtime-Callable Wrappers (RCW) count that among their responsibilities.
In .NET, it's just as easy to create a new interface as it is to inherit an existing one, and just as easy to use the interface in either case. It's just a matter of a reference cast and sometimes that happens implicitly.
C# 8 adds default implementations but that's a .NET-specific feature. Remember, Visual Studio is still using COM interfaces at its core. Default implementations violate the COM rules.
Should you always go for Solution4 since it implements all the predecessors?
That depends on what you're targeting. As a general rule, use the minimal interface version that has the members you need. If you need members from Solution and Solution3, use Solution3, but not Solution4.
On the other hand, if you know you're targeting at least a version of Visual Studio that implements Solution4, there's no reason you couldn't use Solution4. Once you're certain that you're not accidentally preventing your extension from running in the Visual Studio versions you want to target, it falls to your preference.
I am developing a set of classes that implement a common interface. A consumer of my library shall expect each of these classes to implement a certain set of static functions. Is there anyway that I can decorate these class so that the compiler will catch the case where one of the functions is not implemented.
I know it will eventually be caught when building the consuming code. And I also know how to get around this problem using a kind of factory class.
Just curious to know if there is any syntax/attributes out there for requiring static functions on a class.
Ed Removed the word 'interface' to avoid confusion.
No, there is no language support for this in C#. There are two workarounds that I can think of immediately:
use reflection at runtime; crossed fingers and hope...
use a singleton / default-instance / similar to implement an interface that declares the methods
(update)
Actually, as long as you have unit-testing, the first option isn't actually as bad as you might think if (like me) you come from a strict "static typing" background. The fact is; it works fine in dynamic languages. And indeed, this is exactly how my generic operators code works - it hopes you have the static operators. At runtime, if you don't, it will laugh at you in a suitably mocking tone... but it can't check at compile-time.
No. Basically it sounds like you're after a sort of "static polymorphism". That doesn't exist in C#, although I've suggested a sort of "static interface" notion which could be useful in terms of generics.
One thing you could do is write a simple unit test to verify that all of the types in a particular assembly obey your rules. If other developers will also be implementing the interface, you could put that test code into some common place so that everyone implementing the interface can easily test their own assemblies.
This is a great question and one that I've encountered in my projects.
Some people hold that interfaces and abstract classes exist for polymorphism only, not for forcing types to implement certain methods. Personally, I consider polymorphism a primary use case, and forced implementation a secondary. I do use the forced implementation technique fairly often. Typically, it appears in framework code implementing a template pattern. The base/template class encapsulates some complex idea, and subclasses provide numerous variations by implementing the abstract methods. One pragmatic benefit is that the abstract methods provide guidance to other developers implementing the subclasses. Visual Studio even has the ability to stub the methods out for you. This is especially helpful when a maintenance developer needs to add a new subclass months or years later.
The downside is that there is no specific support for some of these template scenarios in C#. Static methods are one. Another one is constructors; ideally, ISerializable should force the developer to implement the protected serialization constructor.
The easiest approach probably is (as suggested earlier) to use an automated test to check that the static method is implemented on the desired types. Another viable idea already mentioned is to implement a static analysis rule.
A third option is to use an Aspect-Oriented Programming framework such as PostSharp. PostSharp supports compile-time validation of aspects. You can write .NET code that reflects over the assembly at compile time, generating arbitrary warnings and errors. Usually, you do this to validate that an aspect usage is appropriate, but I don't see why you couldn't use it for validating template rules as well.
Unfortunately, no, there's nothing like this built into the language.
While there is no language support for this, you could use a static analysis tool to enforce it. For example, you could write a custom rule for FxCop that detects an attribute or interface implementation on a class and then checks for the existence of certain static methods.
The singleton pattern does not help in all cases. My example is from an actual project of mine. It is not contrived.
I have a class (let's call it "Widget") that inherits from a class in a third-party ORM. If I instantiate a Widget object (therefore creating a row in the db) just to make sure my static methods are declared, I'm making a bigger mess than the one I'm trying to clean up.
If I create this extra object in the data store, I've got to hide it from users, calculations, etc.
I use interfaces in C# to make sure that I implement common features in a set of classes.
Some of the methods that implement these features require instance data to run. I code these methods as instance methods, and use a C# interface to make sure they exist in the class.
Some of these methods do not require instance data, so they are static methods. If I could declare interfaces with static methods, the compiler could check whether or not these methods exist in the class that says it implements the interface.
No, there would be no point in this feature. Interfaces are basically a scaled down form of multiple inheritance. They tell the compiler how to set up the virtual function table so that non-static virtual methods can be called properly in descendant classes. Static methods can't be virtual, hence, there's no point in using interfaces for them.
The approach that gets you closer to what you need is a singleton, as Marc Gravell suggested.
Interfaces, among other things, let you provide some level of abstraction to your classes so you can use a given API regardless of the type that implements it. However, since you DO need to know the type of a static class in order to use it, why would you want to enforce that class to implement a set of functions?
Maybe you could use a custom attribute like [ImplementsXXXInterface] and provide some run time checking to ensure that classes with this attribute actually implement the interface you need?
If you're just after getting those compiler errors, consider this setup:
Define the methods in an interface.
Declare the methods with abstract.
Implement the public static methods, and have the abstract method overrides simply call the static methods.
It's a little bit of extra code, but you'll know when someone isn't implementing a required method.
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Closed 10 years ago.
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Interface vs Abstract Class (general OO)
I can see their advantage in coordination of a developing team, or code that might be further developed by others.
But if not, is there a reason to use them at all? What would happen if I omit them?
Abstract – I'll be able to instantiate it. No problem. If it doesn't make sense – I won't.
Interface – I have that functionality declared in all classes deriving from it anyway.
Note: I'm not asking what they are. I'm asking whether they're helpful for anything but coordination.
Both are what I call contracts and can be used in the following fashion by an individual developer:
Abstract
Allows for polymophism of differing derived implementations.
Allows one to create base functionality which can be dictated or not that the derived class be required to implement.
Allows for a default operation to be runtime consumed if the derived does not implement or required to implement.
Provides a consistency across derived objects which a base class pointer can utilize without having to have the actual derived; hence allows generic operations on a derived object from a base class reference similar to an Interface in runtime operation.
Interface
Allows a generic pattern of usage as a defacto contract of operation(s).
This usage is can be targetted to the process in hand and allows for the
surgically precise operations for that contract.
Used to help with
factory patterns (its the object returned), mocking of data during
unit tests and the ability to replace an existing class (say from a
factory returning the interface) with a different object and it
doesn't cause any consumer of the factory any pain of refactoring due to the adherence of the interface contract.
Provides a pattern of usage which can be easily understood away from the static of the rest of the class's implementation.
Long story short are they required to get a job done? No.
But if you are into designing systems which will have a lifespan of more than one cycle, the upfront work by said architect will pay off in the long run whether on a team or by an individual.
++Update
I do practice what I preach and when handing off a project to other developers it was nice to say
Look at the interface IProcess which all the primary business classes adhere to. That process defines a system of goals which can help you understand the purpose and the execution of the business logic in a defined way.
While maintaining and adding new functionality to the project the interfaces actually helped me remember the flow and easily add new business logic into the project.
I think if you're not coordinating with others, it does two things
helps keep your from doing weird things to your own code. Imagine
your write a class, and use it in multiple projects. You may evolve
it in one project so that it is unrecognizable from it's cousin in
another project. Having an abstract class or interface makes you
think twice about changing the function signatures.
it gives you flexibility going forward - plenty of classic examples here. Use
the generic form of the thing you're trying to accomplish, and if
you decide you need a different kind later (streamreaders are a
great example, right?) you can more easily implement it later.
Abstract - you can instantiate a child of it, but what is more important, it can has its own non abstract methods and fields.
Interface - more "rough" one in regard of abstract, but in .NET you can have multiple inheritance. So by defining interface you can lead consumer of your interface(s) to subscribe to different contracts(interfaces), so present different "shapes" of specified type.
There are many reasons to use either construct even if you are not coordinating with anyone. The main use is that both actually help express the developper intent, which may help you later figure out why you choose the design you actually chose. They also may allow for further extensibility.
Abstract class allow you to define one common implementation that will be shared across many derived classes while delegating some of the behavior to the child classes. It allows the DRY (don't repeat yourself) principle to avoid having the same code repeated everywhere.
Interfaces expresses that your class implements one specific contract. This has a very useful uses within the framework, among which:
Use of library functionality that necessitate the implementation of some Interface. Examples are IDisposable, IEquatable, IEnumerable...
Use of constraints in generics.
Allow mocking of interfaces (if you do unit testing) whithout having to instanciate a real object.
Use of COM objects
Some time I ago I was working on a major refactoring of an old Win32 program implemented with COM, and there were various parts that were implemented with C# (.NET). During my work on this project, I ran across a Microsoft page on COM programming in C# that recommended C# classes explicitly implement COM interfaces, rather than implicity. I recently tried to remember why, and I couldn't. I also couldn't find the page on the MSDN site again. Can anybody please tell me why Microsoft might recommend this ?
Hmm, that makes a wee bit of sense, COM is pure interface-based programming and the actual implementation of the interfaces should be hidden. Implementing interface methods explicitly gets you that automatically because they cannot be public.
Actually doing this is quite pointless, you could (and should) simply apply the [ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)] attribute to the class. That by itself ensures that the implementation isn't exposed, only the interfaces implemented by the class are visible. Implementing the interface methods explicitly isn't actually good enough. Because you cannot hide the fact that your class inherits System.Object. Which exposes the four public methods of Object and puts a reference to mscorlib.tlb in your type library, a reference that a real COM client will never use. It will almost always work because the odds that the compiler that uses your class runs on a machine that doesn't have .NET installed are pretty small. But very yucky nonetheless, it isn't actually required. Only the machine that uses the class needs it installed.
Just don't do this. Declare the interfaces you implement, give them the [InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsDual)] attribute to allow them to be used both early and late bound. And hide the actual implementation of them with [ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)]. Only sensible way.
It's old, but from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288461%28v=VS.71%29.aspx they mention implementing an interface explicitly so you can implement multiple interfaces that have the same member names.
This also requires that the user of your class cast an instance of your class to the appropriate interface.
As for why this is especially important for COM: my first guess is so that COM can call one set of methods while managed code may call another. However, I'm guessing here.
I am developing a set of classes that implement a common interface. A consumer of my library shall expect each of these classes to implement a certain set of static functions. Is there anyway that I can decorate these class so that the compiler will catch the case where one of the functions is not implemented.
I know it will eventually be caught when building the consuming code. And I also know how to get around this problem using a kind of factory class.
Just curious to know if there is any syntax/attributes out there for requiring static functions on a class.
Ed Removed the word 'interface' to avoid confusion.
No, there is no language support for this in C#. There are two workarounds that I can think of immediately:
use reflection at runtime; crossed fingers and hope...
use a singleton / default-instance / similar to implement an interface that declares the methods
(update)
Actually, as long as you have unit-testing, the first option isn't actually as bad as you might think if (like me) you come from a strict "static typing" background. The fact is; it works fine in dynamic languages. And indeed, this is exactly how my generic operators code works - it hopes you have the static operators. At runtime, if you don't, it will laugh at you in a suitably mocking tone... but it can't check at compile-time.
No. Basically it sounds like you're after a sort of "static polymorphism". That doesn't exist in C#, although I've suggested a sort of "static interface" notion which could be useful in terms of generics.
One thing you could do is write a simple unit test to verify that all of the types in a particular assembly obey your rules. If other developers will also be implementing the interface, you could put that test code into some common place so that everyone implementing the interface can easily test their own assemblies.
This is a great question and one that I've encountered in my projects.
Some people hold that interfaces and abstract classes exist for polymorphism only, not for forcing types to implement certain methods. Personally, I consider polymorphism a primary use case, and forced implementation a secondary. I do use the forced implementation technique fairly often. Typically, it appears in framework code implementing a template pattern. The base/template class encapsulates some complex idea, and subclasses provide numerous variations by implementing the abstract methods. One pragmatic benefit is that the abstract methods provide guidance to other developers implementing the subclasses. Visual Studio even has the ability to stub the methods out for you. This is especially helpful when a maintenance developer needs to add a new subclass months or years later.
The downside is that there is no specific support for some of these template scenarios in C#. Static methods are one. Another one is constructors; ideally, ISerializable should force the developer to implement the protected serialization constructor.
The easiest approach probably is (as suggested earlier) to use an automated test to check that the static method is implemented on the desired types. Another viable idea already mentioned is to implement a static analysis rule.
A third option is to use an Aspect-Oriented Programming framework such as PostSharp. PostSharp supports compile-time validation of aspects. You can write .NET code that reflects over the assembly at compile time, generating arbitrary warnings and errors. Usually, you do this to validate that an aspect usage is appropriate, but I don't see why you couldn't use it for validating template rules as well.
Unfortunately, no, there's nothing like this built into the language.
While there is no language support for this, you could use a static analysis tool to enforce it. For example, you could write a custom rule for FxCop that detects an attribute or interface implementation on a class and then checks for the existence of certain static methods.
The singleton pattern does not help in all cases. My example is from an actual project of mine. It is not contrived.
I have a class (let's call it "Widget") that inherits from a class in a third-party ORM. If I instantiate a Widget object (therefore creating a row in the db) just to make sure my static methods are declared, I'm making a bigger mess than the one I'm trying to clean up.
If I create this extra object in the data store, I've got to hide it from users, calculations, etc.
I use interfaces in C# to make sure that I implement common features in a set of classes.
Some of the methods that implement these features require instance data to run. I code these methods as instance methods, and use a C# interface to make sure they exist in the class.
Some of these methods do not require instance data, so they are static methods. If I could declare interfaces with static methods, the compiler could check whether or not these methods exist in the class that says it implements the interface.
No, there would be no point in this feature. Interfaces are basically a scaled down form of multiple inheritance. They tell the compiler how to set up the virtual function table so that non-static virtual methods can be called properly in descendant classes. Static methods can't be virtual, hence, there's no point in using interfaces for them.
The approach that gets you closer to what you need is a singleton, as Marc Gravell suggested.
Interfaces, among other things, let you provide some level of abstraction to your classes so you can use a given API regardless of the type that implements it. However, since you DO need to know the type of a static class in order to use it, why would you want to enforce that class to implement a set of functions?
Maybe you could use a custom attribute like [ImplementsXXXInterface] and provide some run time checking to ensure that classes with this attribute actually implement the interface you need?
If you're just after getting those compiler errors, consider this setup:
Define the methods in an interface.
Declare the methods with abstract.
Implement the public static methods, and have the abstract method overrides simply call the static methods.
It's a little bit of extra code, but you'll know when someone isn't implementing a required method.