[Mono-dev] Edit and Continue / Function body rewrite

[Kornél Pál]

System.Reflection.Emit is far from metadata. So you should rewrite large 
parts of gmcs if you would like to use Cecil. If you only want to generate 
IL code it could be easier but for edit and continue you need metadata as 
well. I think the easiest solution is to compile using gmcs and load the 
output using Cecil that can be used to create a low level diffgram.

But I don't know what code is actually needed to make edit and continue 
work. (I mean the input that the runtime needs for modifying loaded 
modules.)

Kornél

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Srbecky" <dsrbecky at gmail.com>
To: "Kornél Pál" <kornelpal at gmail.com>
Cc: <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 2:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Mono-dev] Edit and Continue / Function body rewrite


I need to compile source code and there is a great C# compiler - gmcs.
gmcs will save the update using System.Reflection.Emit and so this is
how I need to get the data.

Consider this:
- I compile program using gmcs and save it to assembly Foo.exe
- I make gmcs to reemit one method using System.Reflection.Emit

How can I now use Cecil to get the IL code of the new method? I have to
use System.Reflection.Emit.

David

Kornél Pál wrote:
> Cecil can read and write metadata and IL code so you can even modify 
> existing metadata or IL code. If you want to compile source code to IL 
> code you need a compiler. Neither System.Reflection.Emit nor Cecil 
> provides any compiler so this is not a difference.
>
> Kornél
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Srbecky" <dsrbecky at gmail.com>
> To: "Kornél Pál" <kornelpal at gmail.com>
> Cc: <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 2:28 AM
> Subject: Re: [Mono-dev] Edit and Continue / Function body rewrite
>
>
> I do not see how Cecil can help me - can you please outline how could I
> use it?
>
> I know that Cecil can write new IL code and metadata to an assembly, but
> that's not what I want to do - I somehow want to obtain new IL code and
> metadata from a given source code of one method.
>
> David
>
> Kornél Pál wrote:
>> Why do you want to extend System.Reflection.Emit when Cecil already can 
>> do that? As far as I know Cecil can be used with .NET Framework as well 
>> so you don't even need two different runtimes.
>>
>> BTW according to your previous messages you don't only want to change IL 
>> code but you want to modify metadata and string heap as well.
>>
>> Kornél
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Srbecky" <dsrbecky at gmail.com>
>> To: "Kornél Pál" <kornelpal at gmail.com>
>> Cc: <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 1:53 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Mono-dev] Edit and Continue / Function body rewrite
>>
>>
>>>> If you want to modify existing assemblies you should use Cecil 
>>>> (http://www.mono-project.com/Cecil) because it is designed to do this 
>>>> while System.Reflection.Emit is designed to emit new code and in fact
>>>
>>> I do not want to save the new IL code to assembly, I want to save it to 
>>> memory to change a running program - but I know how to do that.
>>>
>>> The problem is that I need to somehow *get* the new IL code - do to that 
>>> I need to use gmcs and System.Reflection.Emit.
>>>
>>>> it have less support for metadata creation than C# requires because 
>>>> Microsoft is not using it for C# compilation so they didn't reallized 
>>>> that System.Reflection.Emit lacks a lot of features.
>>>
>>> That's why I have to use Mono's System.Reflection.Emit not Mircosoft's
>>>
>>> David
>>
>
>