[Mono-bugs] [Bug 74951][Wis] New - Proposal: code manipulation stack

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Changed by dsilva at ccs.neu.edu.

http://bugzilla.ximian.com/show_bug.cgi?id=74951

--- shadow/74951	2005-05-14 17:07:28.000000000 -0400
+++ shadow/74951.tmp.25050	2005-05-14 17:07:28.000000000 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+Bug#: 74951
+Product: Mono: Class Libraries
+Version: 1.1
+OS: 
+OS Details: 
+Status: NEW   
+Resolution: 
+Severity: 
+Priority: Wishlist
+Component: Mono.Cecil
+AssignedTo: mono-bugs at ximian.com                            
+ReportedBy: dsilva at ccs.neu.edu               
+QAContact: mono-bugs at ximian.com
+TargetMilestone: ---
+URL: 
+Cc: 
+Summary: Proposal: code manipulation stack
+
+There are currently various ways to read, write, and otherwise manipulate
+C# trees and MSIL bytecode.  This report proposes a code manipulation stack
+to unify many of these efforts.
+
+BACKGROUND
+
+These are the libraries of which I am currently aware:
+
+- Mono.CodeGeneration, by Lluis Sanchez Gual.  Provides an imperative
+interface to generating MSIL through C#-like constructs.
+http://primates.ximian.com/~lluis/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=34
+
+- The Mono C# compiler internal AST and backend.  The Mono C# compiler is
+itself a .Net program.
+
+- Microsoft .Net Reflection.  The System.Reflection.Emit namespace provides
+a low-level interface to build MSIL instructions and assemblies.
+http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfSystemReflectionEmit.asp
+
+- AbsIL (AbstractIL), by Don Syme at Microsoft Research.  An OCaml and F#
+library for manipulating MSIL.  Also provides ILX (the library), which
+generates ILX (the language), an MSIL extension that efficiently encodes
+discriminated unions, first-class function values and generics as MSIL.
+http://research.microsoft.com/projects/ilx/absil.aspx
+
+- Mono.Cecil.  Provides a bytecode parser and will provide the reverse
+direction in the future.
+http://www.mono-project.com/Cecil
+
+- RAIL, the Runtime Assembly Instrumentation Library, by the Dependable
+Systems Group at the  University of Coimbra.  Similar to Cecil.
+http://rail.dei.uc.pt/
+
+- AspectDNG, by Thomas Gil and Jean-Baptiste Evain at DotNetGuru.  Builds
+atop RAIL to provide a .Net aspect weaver.  Also provides ILML, an MSIL
+meta-language library.
+http://aspectdng.sourceforge.net/
+
+- PERWAPI, the PE File Reader/Writer API, by the PL and Systems group at
+the Queensland University of Technology.  Similar to RAIL and Cecil.
+http://www.plas.fit.qut.edu.au/perwapi/Default.aspx
+
+
+MOTIVATION
+
+As the Mono C# compiler is a .Net program, it makes sense to expose its
+interfaces for generating abstract syntax trees (representing C# code),
+intermediate representation trees (common across other .Net compilers like
+mbas?), and code streams.
+
+Mono.CodeGeneration goes straight from C#-like constructs to a live .Net
+type through Reflection.Emit, but it would also be a great interface to
+create MCS AST objects.  Those can then be transformed into Cecil objects.
+ Cecil provides a codegen interface very similar to Reflection.Emit, but
+can serve as a potentially improved library for code-manipulation
+developers, since only Microsoft can change the Emit interface.
+
+Providing a comprehensive path from bytecode to code trees and back makes
+it easier to write code loading, generation, analysis, manipulation, and
+optimization tools.  More tools, of course, makes Mono and the .Net
+platform more interesting.
+
+CODE MANIPULATION INTERFACE
+
+A good set of functions for code generation would be:
+
+ParseCSharpModule : String -> Mono.MCS.AST.Module
+ParseCSharp|Expression, Type, Method| : String -> Mono.MCS.AST.*
+Transform : Mono.CodeGeneration.* -> Mono.MCS.AST.*
+Analyze : Mono.MCS.AST.* -> Mono.MCS.IR.*
+Compile : Mono.MCS.IR.* -> Mono.Cecil.*
+Optimize : Mono.MCS.Cecil.* -> Mono.MCS.Cecil.*
+Assemble : Mono.Cecil.* -> System.Reflection.Emit.*
+
+And a set of functions for code parsing:
+
+Disassemble : ByteStream -> Mono.Cecil.IAssemblyDefinition
+Decompile : Mono.Cecil.* -> Mono.MCS.IR.*