[Mono-devel-list] Extension to mcs

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> I'd like to add support for "Design by Contract" [1] to the Mono C#
> compiler using custom attributes - kind of what eXtensible C# [2] does.
> This requires the dynamic modification of the code tree after the parse
> step of mcs. At the moment there is AFAIK no possibility to extend mcs
> like that without forking it. But it seems that such extensions are
> possible with very little modification of mcs. Specifically that'd be:
> - a hook event after the parse step, probably in MainDriver
> - a public get property for the statements member in the Block class
> 
> Perhaps more changes will become necessary but such little modifications
> shouldn't hurt. So, my question is now, can I assume that a patch
> integrating these changes would be accepted or are there some
> fundamental issues I've overlooked?

I could integrate small patches like that.

But in general a fork is not a bad thing;  It is done all the time
everywhere to test, prototype and play with things.  

Once you have a mature patch, maybe we could see what bits we can put in
the mainline compiler, and which ones are not suitable (maybe mcs could
load plugins if necessary).

Miguel