Why would you need to emit IL code? [closed] - c#

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I work in a code base that is quite large and today I found a project that was emitting IL code inside a normal class.
The project containing the IL code being emitted was a implementation of a Service Locator MSDN Desctiption.
What are the advantages of doing this and why would this be done as apposed to using the C# language?

Typically this is done to circumvent the overhead of using reflection, using information only available at runtime.
You would then use reflection, which can be slow depending on what you do, to build a new piece of code that works directly with the data given to it, without using reflection.
Advantages:
Performance
Disadvantages:
Hard to debug
Hard to get right
Hard to read code afterwards
Steep learning curve
So you need to ensure it's really worth the price before embarking on this.
Note that this is a general answer. In the specific case you came across, there is no way to answer why this was done nor which particular advantages (or disadvantages) you would have without actually seeing the code.

There are many uses for this.
One of the more often used scenario is for changing/injecting code on the fly:
.NET CLR Injection: Modify IL Code during Run-time
A good tutorial that help me to understand a good use for it is:
Dynamic... But Fast: The Tale of Three Monkeys, A Wolf and the DynamicMethod and ILGenerator Classes
Good luck

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How do C# Programmers effectively use "using ___;"? [closed]

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I'm a beginner C# developer and I'm branching out into looking at certain parts of what some more advanced bits of code. However, I cannot wrap my head around how developers and programmers use the "using" commands effectively. I understand how they work, and if they are a public class file they can have their methods accessed, but how do programmers know from picking up an API how to use it?
Sorry if this question seems like a total breeze and as though I've misunderstood the concept entirely (maybe I have, haha) but it seems like something where without extensively going through the API and it's documentation, most people can chew through these things quite easily.
First of all, not sure if you are aware of not, but the using directive does not actually "import" or start "using" anything. using System; merely tells the compiler that whenever you use something like DateTime, it will check System.DateTime and try to look for the type there. In fact, you can write in C# without using the using directive at all (unless you need to resolve a naming conflict), but of course the program will become unnecessarily "wordy".
As for the other part of your question, you don't begin writing a C# program starting with using. You first have to find the proper "tools" (classes) for the problem you are trying to solve by the program, and only then add using so that you can work with them efficiently without typing the namespace over and over. Moreover, most modern IDEs will add the directive automatically, either when you create a new file (adding some common namespaces), or when you use a class in a namespace that you forgot to import with using.

Can I use unmanaged C++ code to reduce calculation costs in a C# project? [closed]

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I want to use a c++ project to do some calculations for a c# project and return the results.
I was wondering if I would benefit a more efficient calculation speed in c++ if I do so?
Would still be efficient if I wrapped the native code in c++/cli?
Are there any examples out there?
Just as simple example say you have two double values A and B in C#, how would you have c++ project to receive A and B and a string value "plus" or "times" to calculate and return A + B or A * B?
Use Process.Start(); to spawn your optimized program. You will be able to pass parameters and even read the output. Start here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/53ezey2s(v=vs.110).aspx
You've got two separate issues in your question: "How do I", and "Should I".
If you're having problems with the "How do I", please post a question with the specific code you have, and what problems you're having.
"Should I" is somewhat of a nebulous question: It depends a lot on the type of calculations you're trying to do. These questions often have no one right answer. (Also note that this type of question is often offtopic for Stack Overflow for that very reason, so this question may be closed.)
For some types of calculations, the C++ compiler might produce more efficient code than the .Net Jitter. For some types, it won't make a difference. C++ would also let you do things like using the GPU to perform the calculations.
Also, consider how long it will take you to write this optimized code, and how often you're going to run it. If this needs to run overnight once a month, maybe a couple hours to run is fine.

What is an F# tail call? Why is it a performance boost over C#? [closed]

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This article spells out some reasons F#'s performance is occasionally better than C#. It says in it's "Firstly" section that only F# generates tail calls.
What exactly does that mean? And why is it a performance boost? This one thing may actually make or break between F# and C# for my chess app, which uses a ton of recursion.
Performance will depend more on the way you implement your program than the language. F# may generate IL better for some things while the C# compiler will be better for others. When choosing the languages you should consider other things rather than just performance.
If you're writing your chess program to learn F#, give it a try, it's an awesome language, just don't expect super blazing fast programs just because you're using a functional language.
Edit to answer the new question:
The F# compiler indeed does generate IL that has the tail. op code whareas the C# compiler doesn't. That by itself doesn't make F# faster or more performatic than C#, as you can see in my original answer above, but can indeed make a difference in your specific chess app, since you are stating that recursion is heavily used.
As a side note, the CLR may generate some simpler tail call optimizations during runtime, so for simpler functions in a x64 enviroment, even IL generated by the C# compiler may have tail call optimization.

Rewrite C code into C# completely or write DLL? [closed]

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Can anyone tell me what would be more efficient: A large program is written in visual-C++ years ago is now intended to be written in C#. What would be better, re-writing the whole code of visual-C++ in C# or write C++ DLLs to be used in C# program via DLLimport?
I guess it depends on how data-centric your code is. If you can easily separate out the functionality that does not require an interface, then you'd most likely be better off writing a DLL to utilize this functionality, and then re-writing the interface in C#.
If the program is rather interface heavy, and you do not want to go through separating out all of the data functions, then I'd just go ahead and re-write the whole thing in C#, although I'd expect to lose some performance.
VisualC++ is still a very widely used language - is this your only reason for wanting to move to C# (i.e. finding it hard to recruit people, lacking skills to continue development)?
There is only a single answer to this: "it depends". We cannot possibly know this, it's something you must decide.
Check what you need in terms of time and other resources for both. Check what benefit your gain from both. Weigth cost against benefit. Decide.

How come there's no C# equivalent of python's doctest feature? [closed]

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Seems like it would be a good way to introduce some people to unit testing.
Well for one thing, the documentation for doctest talks about "interactive Python sessions". There's no equivalent of that in C#... so how would the output be represented? How would you perform all the necessary setup?
I dare say such a thing would be possible, but personally I think that at least for C#, it's clearer to have unit tests as unit tests, where you have all the benefits of the fact that you're writing code rather than comments. The code can be checked for syntactic correctness at compile-time, you have IntelliSense, syntax highlighting, debugger support etc.
If you're writing code, why not represent that as code? Admittedly it's reasonably common to include sample code in XML documentation, but that's rarely in the form of tests - and without an equivalent of an "interactive session" it would require an artificial construct to represent the output in a testable form.
I'm not saying this is a bad feature in Python - just that it's one which I don't believe maps over to C# particularly well. Languages have their own styles, and not every feature in language X will make sense in language Y.

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