[Mono-dev] Mixed Mode Assemblies

[Alex Corrado]

Tom,

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 1:40 PM, Tom Spink <tspink at gmail.com> wrote:
> Why do you think that?  I've actually pondered this approach for a while, as
> it could potentially bring a couple of benefits.

I am curious to know what benefits you are referring to. The original
poster said:

>>> Without a doubt, every case where I've wanted/needed to use C++.NET has been
>>> to create a mixed mode assembly with the intent of creating a clean,
>>> optimized .NET interface for some piece of unmanaged code. If P/Invoke and
>>> System.Runtime.InteropServices formed a complete solution for importing
>>> native functionality into .NET, then I doubt Microsoft would have bothered
>>> allowing for mixed-mode assemblies at all.

I tend to agree with this statement. Mixed-mode assemblies, whether in
PE or some other format, strike me as hackish and are not portable
across platforms. How managed and native code are packaged (same
binary or separately) is not really related to the problem of the two
interoperating. It would be perfectly possible to create a
source-compatible C++/CLI implementation that emits native code in a
platform native binary, and managed code in an ECMA CLI native (PE)
binary.

Best,

Alex Corrado