New Version is not aot compatible and can't use static library

[AhmedZero]

In version 1.1.0, I can use the static library and NativeAOT. However, in version 2.0.0 and later, it uses reflections, making it incompatible with AOT, and I can’t depend on the static library too.

[JunaMeinhold]

Do you get an exception or a trim warning? Because the static analyzers for aot don't report anything. And i think i tested it with my UI Framework a while ago

[AhmedZero]

dotnet/runtime#104229
You use Assembly.GetCallingAssembly at https://github.com/HexaEngine/HexaGen/blob/7a1a3c664b55c7e98b2000c9f7df6caf4e9ecd4f/HexaGen.Runtime/LibraryLoader.cs#L158-L159

[JunaMeinhold]

Okay will be fixed soon...

[JunaMeinhold]

Closing this issue, tested it before uploading, if any other issue regarding aot persists just reopen the issue.

[AhmedZero]

The first issue is fixed, but I still can’t depend on the static library.

		<DirectPInvoke Include="cimgui" />
		<NativeLibrary Include="cimgui.lib" />

Reference:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/native-aot/interop
because you use VTable and Loadlibrary which it's already inside exe. make Global Property depends on VTable or LibraryImport

[JunaMeinhold]

Thanks for the information. However, it seems like there might be a misunderstanding. I don’t provide the static libraries for cimgui.

For now, I will only use the shared libraries. If the static library dependency is a real concern for you, feel free to make a fork of the project and submit a pull request with the necessary changes. I'm open to reviewing it if that approach fits your needs. (Please do not add or modify any binaries including shared and static libs, you can modify the github actions files for that. And don't use LibraryImport, it's too slow)

[AhmedZero]

I add static library manually in my project and it automatically depend on it.
in NativeAOT with static library, it converts DLLImport to DirectPInvoke at build time.

[AhmedZero]

or create two seperated package the first, VTable with Dynamic Library and the second DLLImport with Static Library.

[JunaMeinhold]

I currently don't have the motivation for doing it on my own, as i said if you want you can do a fork and make a pull request, the generator supports different modes for generating bindings (see https://github.com/HexaEngine/HexaGen/blob/7a1a3c664b55c7e98b2000c9f7df6caf4e9ecd4f/HexaGen/CsCodeGeneratorConfig.cs#L24) you just have to change that in the generator,json files located here https://github.com/HexaEngine/Hexa.NET.ImGui/blob/master/Generator/cimgui/generator.json (note each lib has it's own config file 4 in total).

DllImport and LibraryImport (which just generates a DllImport) is slow compared to the VTable method (I probably should use a different name, a api function table would be more accurate) when using normal C#.

[amerkoleci]

Hi,
Based on what concept LibraryImport and DllImport are slow? Did you benchmarked that?

In all mine bindings I've used LibraryImport and I'm not sure what slowness your meaning?

[JunaMeinhold]

@amerkoleci
Hi,
DllImport (LibraryImport is just DllImport) has the problem that it's lazy loaded means you always have checks on if it's loaded or not and loading it does again cause the whole system to stutter if you access one function the first time. Additionally there is memory fragmentation and CPU cache efficiency which is not guaranteed with DllImport since the function pointers could be stored somewhere but don't ask me where. I didn't do explicit benchmarks but i tested it on my engine's editor and the startup timing was about 1s less and CPU usage from the editor components where less than with DllImport, like from 0,44ms to 0,22ms. And DllImport does some marshalling if not explicitly disabled via the attribute, but that means DllImport does some internal magic which again adds overhead (even checking if it's disabled means you still have one if). And memory usage is more predictable with the length of the table times sizeof(nint). DllImport also does some safety checks, which the direct calls bypass.

[JunaMeinhold]

Additionally DllImport has a limitation in netstandard and can't be used for multiple platforms. Since on linux shared libs usually start with libXXX.so and on windows we have XXX.dll which often creates name differences and this becomes a problem when we try to load system libs, and setting NativeLibrary.SetDllImportResolver only works on .NET Core 3.0 or greater excluding netstandard versions and this would break .NET Framework compatibility.

For this reason i close this issue as not planned.