A Developer's Experience

When I was working on the .NET reflection extravaganza thing that I explained in my previous column, i learnt one another interesting thing, that is about the Type.InvokeMember. How will pass out or ref parameters for the method invoked using Type.InvokeMember ? If you are going to invoke a method with the prototype int DoSomething(string someString, int someInt); then you would use InvokeMember like this:- object obj = someType.InvokeMember("DoSomething", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance, null, this, new object[] {"Largest Integer", 1}); or use some variables in the new object[] {...}. But what do you with the args if DoSomething takes out or ref parameters ? int DoSomething(out string someString, ref int someInt); Something like this will not work string someText = string.Empty; int someInt = 0; object obj = someType.InvokeMember("DoSomething", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags....

I was involved in this module for the past few weeks and successfully completed it in a very innovative way. Ok, this was the problem. We have a COM server, let us name it Server. I had to write an assembly in C#, let us call it Bridge, that will listen to all of the events fired by the Server and perform an action Action. To keep that Action simple, let us assume we have to log them in the database. But the Server fires hundreds of events, and it is not wise to write up static event handlers for all of them. Also if more events are added in the future, it is possible to support the Bridge. So I came up with a different approach with the incredible Reflection in .NET. All of the events fired by the Server, its prototype and other relevant information can be got through reflection, and for each of the event methods, an event sink [event handler] can be generated at runtime. This means I have to create a method at runtime matching the prototype of the event. The dynamic method thus gener...

I have been using C# for quite some time now, and that too VS 2005. I see that Programming Pain at a macro level has boiled down to thinking than coding. Though it might be an advantage on one side, I feel I have become lazy. Since I am a programmer from the C++ world, it was very easy to become lazy. The small and handy applications that I write for myself in C++, I am writing them in C#. Even now I am a great disciple of C++. And even though C++/CLI is out there, and I work a small amount of it in my project, I am getting inclined to C#. I am not sure why I am writing this. Is it the fear or sorrow of getting away from C++ ? Or am I just expecting much elegant syntax and features like in C# ? But I have begun to feel that the result you achieve out of the code you write is much more important than the programming language you use. Does anyone care whether Windows or Visual Studio or Yahoo Messenger or Google Talk or Internet Explorer or FireFox or any application you love, is written...