Summary Metaprogramming in .NET is designed to help readers understand the basic concepts, advantages, and potential pitfalls of metaprogramming. It introduces core concepts in clear, easy-to-follow language and then it takes you on a deep dive into the tools and techniques you'll use to implement them in your .NET code. You'll explore plenty of real-world examples that reinforce key concepts. When you finish, you'll be able to build high-performance, metaprogramming-enabled software with confidence. About the Technology When you write programs that create or modify other programs, you are metaprogramming. In .NET, you can use reflection as well as newer concepts like code generation and scriptable software. The emerging Roslyn project exposes the .NET compiler as an interactive API, allowing compile-time code analysis and just-in-time refactoring. About this Book Metaprogramming in .NET is a practical introduction to the use of metaprogramming to improve the performance and maintainability of your code. This book avoids abstract theory and instead teaches you solid practices you'll find useful immediately. It introduces core concepts like code generation and application composition in clear, easy-to-follow language. Written for readers comfortable with C# and the .NET framework—no prior experience with metaprogramming is required. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book. What's Inside Metaprogramming concepts in plain language Creating scriptable software Code generation techniques The Dynamic Language Runtime About the Authors Kevin Hazzard is a Microsoft MVP, consultant, teacher, and developer community leader in the mid-Atlantic USA. Jason Bock is an author, Microsoft MVP, and the leader of the Twin Cities Code Camp. "An excellent way to start fully using the power of metaprogramming."—From the Foreword by Rockford Lhotka, Creator of the CSLA .NET Framework Table of Contents PART 1 DEMYSTIFYING METAPROGRAMMING Metaprogramming concepts Exploring code and metadata with reflection PART 2 TECHNIQUES FOR GENERATING CODE The Text Template Transformation Toolkit (T4) Generating code with the CodeDOM Generating code with Reflection.Emit Generating code with expressions Generating code with IL rewriting PART 3 LANGUAGES AND TOOLS The Dynamic Language Runtime Languages and tools Managing the .NET Compiler

Master advanced techniques for dynamic .NET programming and accelerate productivity by automating tasks, generating adaptable code, and more Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Key Features Employ metaprogramming to automate your tasks and increase your productivity Write maintainable, scalable, and adaptable code using metaprogramming techniques Leverage the .NET runtime for complex problem-solving Book Description Metaprogramming is an advanced technique that helps developers to automate repetitive tasks, generate scalable code, and enhance productivity in software development. Metaprogramming in C# is a comprehensive guide that will help you reap the full potential of metaprogramming in .NET runtime. You'll start by learning about the .NET runtime environment and how you can use it to become a more productive developer. You'll learn how to infer types using reflection, use attributes, and create dynamic proxies. You'll also explore the use of expressions to create and execute code and how to take advantage of Dynamic Language Runtime. But that's not all! You'll also learn to go beyond inheritance and use method signature conventions to create easily maintainable code. Finally, you'll dive into the world of compiler magic with Roslyn, where you'll discover how to use Roslyn to generate code, perform static code analysis, and write your own compiler extensions. By the end of this book, you'll have a deep understanding of metaprogramming concepts and how to apply them to your C# code. You'll be able to think about types, use attributes and expressions to generate code, and apply crosscutting concerns to improve code quality. What you will learn Explore how to leverage the .NET runtime Improve code quality and increase productivity Write adaptable code for changing requirements Learn Roslyn for code generation and static analysis Master metaprogramming and its practical implementations Use Dynamic Language Runtime for flexible and expressive programming Who this book is for This book is for C# developers interested in learning about the .NET runtime and how to leverage it for writing maintainable, scalable, and secure code. Software architects who are responsible for designing and managing complex software solutions will also benefit from the book.

This is the first book to describe the recent significant changes to the .NET compilation process and demonstrate how .NET developers can use the new Compiler API to create compelling applications. As an open source compiler, the Compiler API now makes its code available for anyone to use. In this book, you’ll get a concise, focused view of this tremendous resource for developers, who can now use any part of the platform implementation to their advantage in analyzing applications, improving code generation, and providing enforceable patterns, all under an OSS model. You will learn how to analyze your code for defects in a fast, clean manner never available before. You’ll work with solutions and projects to provide automatic refactoring, and you’ll discover how you can generate code dynamically to provide application implementations at runtime Having the Compiler API available opens a number of doors for .NET developers that were either simply not there before, or difficult to achieve. However, the API is vast, and this concise book provides a valuable roadmap to this new development environment. What You Will Learn: Understand how to generate, compile, and execute code for a number of scenarios How to create diagnostics and refactoring to help developers enforce conventions and design idioms Experiment with the compiler code base and see what can be done to influence the inner workings of the compilation pipeline Who This Book Is For:Experienced .NET developers, but detailed compiler knowledge is not necessary.

Microsoft’s Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) is a platform for running dynamic languages such as Ruby and Python on an equal footing with compiled languages such as C#. Furthermore, the runtime is the foundation for many useful software design and architecture techniques you can apply as you develop your .NET applications. Pro DLR in .NET 4 introduces you to the DLR, showing how you can use it to write software that combines dynamic and static languages, letting you choose the right tool for the job. You will learn the core DLR components such as LINQ expressions, call sites, binders, and dynamic objects—and how they work together to achieve language interoperability. You’ll see how to mix and match objects and functions from compiled and dynamic languages, so you can write code in the language of your choice while taking advantage of libraries written in other languages. And you'll discover how the various languages interoperate behind the scenes. With the basics out of the way, the book then details the various ways you can leverage the DLR in the design and architecture of your software applications. You’ll learn about runtime code generation, which lets you avoid much of the boilerplate code typical in layered business applications. You’ll see practical examples of using the DLR to build domain-specific languages, and you’ll learn how the DLR helps enable aspect-oriented programming.

C++ Template Metaprogramming sheds light on the most powerful idioms of today's C++, at long last delivering practical metaprogramming tools and techniques into the hands of the everyday programmer. A metaprogram is a program that generates or manipulates program code. Ever since generic programming was introduced to C++, programmers have discovered myriad "template tricks" for manipulating programs as they are compiled, effectively eliminating the barrier between program and metaprogram. While excitement among C++ experts about these capabilities has reached the community at large, their practical application remains out of reach for most programmers. This book explains what metaprogramming is and how it is best used. It provides the foundation you'll need to use the template metaprogramming effectively in your own work. This book is aimed at any programmer who is comfortable with idioms of the Standard Template Library (STL). C++ power-users will gain a new insight into their existing work and a new fluency in the domain of metaprogramming. Intermediate-level programmers who have learned a few advanced template techniques will see where these tricks fit in the big picture and will gain the conceptual foundation to use them with discipline. Programmers who have caught the scent of metaprogramming, but for whom it is still mysterious, will finally gain a clear understanding of how, when, and why it works. All readers will leave with a new tool of unprecedented power at their disposal—the Boost Metaprogramming Library. Note: CD materials are only available with the print edition.

In 2005, Microsoft quietly announced an initiative to bring dynamic languages to the .NET platform. The starting point for this project was a .NET implementation of Python, dubbed IronPython. After a couple years of incubation, IronPython is ready for real-world use. It blends the simplicity, elegance, and dynamism of Python with the power of the .NET framework. IronPython in Action offers a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to Microsoft's exciting new approach for programming the .NET framework. It approaches IronPython as a first class .NET language, fully integrated with the .NET environment, Visual Studio, and even the open-source Mono implementation. You'll learn how IronPython can be embedded as a ready-made scripting language into C# and VB.NET programs, used for writing full applications or for web development with ASP. Even better, you'll see how IronPython works in Silverlight for client-side web programming. IronPython opens up exciting new possibilities. Because it's a dynamic language, it permits programming paradigms not easily available in VB and C#. In this book, authors Michael Foord and Christian Muirhead explore the world of functional programming, live introspection, dynamic typing and duck typing , metaprogramming, and more. IronPython in Action explores these topics with examples, making use of the Python interactive console to explore the .NET framework with live objects. The expert authors provide a complete introduction for programmers to both the Python language and the power of the .NET framework. The book also shows how to extend IronPython with C#, extending C# and VB.NET applications with Python, using IronPython with .NET 3.0 and Powershell, IronPython as a Windows scripting tool, and much more. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Learn how Roslyn's new code generation capability will let you write software that is more concise, runs faster, and is easier to maintain. You will learn from real-world business applications to create better software by letting the computer write its own code based on your business logic already defined in lookup tables. Code Generation with Rosyln is the first book to cover this new capability. You will learn how these techniques can be used to simplify systems integration so that if one system already defines business logic through lookup tables, you can integrate a new system and share business logic by allowing the new system to write its own business logic based on already existing table-based business logic. One of the many benefits you will discover is that Roslyn uses an innovative approach to compiler design, opening up the inner workings of the compiler process. You will learn how to see the syntax tree that Roslyn is building as it compiles your code. Additionally, you will learn to feed it your own syntax tree that you create on the fly. What You'll Learn Structure logic to be stored in database design Build complex conditional logic based on lookup data in the database Compile code that you generate programmatically Discover generated code and run it dynamically to implement new business logic Debug problems in generated code Deploy and access generated code Who This Book Is For Back end developers in very dynamic fast-paced business environments. Developers focused on integrating different systems across an enterprise should also find this information useful.