[Mono-dev] Generic Variance

[Scott Peterson]

> Why this change is required to make variance works?
> mono_class_interface_offset is a low level function used mainly to setup
> vtable layout.
>
> This change affects vtable layout code, remoting and reflection. Without
> proper testing to make sure it doesn't break stuff and is compatible with MS
> this patch is a no go.
>
> The chicken and egg situation for testing can be overcome by either using IL
> just for the interfaces, the rest can be done with C#; or you can use
> System.Reflection.Emit to build types with variance.

Well, before the change, I tried to execute a legal image with
variance, and got a runtime error from the mini-trampoline code
because mono_class_interface_offset returned negative, meaning that
the offset of the interface for which it was looking could not be
found on the specified type. However the class did implement a variant
interface, so I modified mono_class_interface_offset to look for
variant interfaces if it couldn't find the interface via the usual
search. There may well be a better place in the VM to handle the
problem: I just followed the stack trace :) I'll put together an SRE
test for you to look at.