Syntax

CodeBinder is a tool that transpiles C# projects in several languages/frameworks, specifically aimed for wrappers to native libraries using .NET native interop.

Usage: CodeBinder [OPTIONS]

Options:

Options:
  -p, --project=VALUE        The project to be converted
  -s, --solution=VALUE       The solution to be converted
  -m, --nsmapping=VALUE      Mapping for the given, must be colon separated ns1:
                               ns2
  -l, --language=VALUE       The target language for the conversion
  -t, --targetpath=VALUE       The target root path for the conversion
  -h, --help                 Show this message and exit
      --interface-only       Only output public interface (CLang)
      --android              Output is compatible with android sdk (Java)
      --commonjs             Output is CommonJS compatible (TypeScript)
      --create-template      Create template project and definitions (NativeAOT)

Example:

CodeBinder --project=project.csproj --language=Java --namespace=Library:com.library --targetpath=D:\target\java

Build

Command line:

• Run build-release.cmd (or build-release.ps1) to build the solution. Executables will be found in bin/{Debug|Release} folders

Example test project

An example test project/solution can be found in Test/CodeBinder.Test.sln. You can generate code out of this project in two ways:

• Run do-test-codegen.cmd (or do-test-codegen.ps1) to build the solution and run the sample code gen;
• Execute the Sample project in the CodeBinder.sln solution.

Generated code will be found in ../CodeBinder-TestCodeGen.

Supported target languages/C# syntax

Supported languages

• Java/JNI (JDK/Android)
• ObjectiveC
• TypeScript (commonjs/ESModule, using NodeJS)

The following languages are supported only to create implementation templates (the definitions of the DllImport methods declared in the C# project being transpiled):

• C/C++
• NativeAOT (Experimental)

Supported C# statements

• Block
• BreakStatement
• ForEachStatement
• ContinueStatement
• DoStatement
• EmptyStatement
• ExpressionStatement
• ForStatement
• IfStatement
• LocalDeclarationStatement
• LockStatement
• ReturnStatement
• SwitchStatement
• ThrowStatement
• TryStatement
• UsingStatement
• WhileStatement

Unsupported C# statements

• ForEachVariableStatement
• CheckedStatement
• UnsafeStatement
• LabeledStatement
• GotoStatement
• FixedStatement
• LocalFunctionStatement
• YieldStatement

Supported C# expressions

• ArrayCreationExpression
• OmittedArraySizeExpression
• AssignmentExpression
• BinaryExpression
• CastExpression
• ConditionalExpression
• ElementAccessExpression
• InitializerExpression
• BaseExpression
• ThisExpression
• InvocationExpression
• LiteralExpression
• MemberAccessExpression
• ObjectCreationExpression
• ParenthesizedExpression
• PostfixUnaryExpression
• PrefixUnaryExpression
• QualifiedName
• TypeOfExpression
• ArrayType
• GenericName
• IdentifierName
• NullableType
• OmittedTypeArgument
• PredefinedType
• RefType

Unsupported C# expressions

• RefExpression (ref int i2 = ref i;)
• DeclarationExpression (out var declaration or a tuple deconstruction)
• ThrowExpression (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/throw#the-throw-expression)
• DefaultExpression
• AnonymousMethodExpression
• ParenthesizedLambdaExpression
• SimpleLambdaExpression
• PointerType
• AliasQualifiedName (Except in attributes)
• RefValueExpression
• RefTypeExpression
• ImplicitArrayCreationExpression (var names = new [] { "Bob", "Sam", "Jim", "Dan", "Mel" };)
• ElementBindingExpression (new Class() { Member = 1; })
• ImplicitElementAccess ???
• MemberBindingExpression
• SizeOfExpression
• MakeRefExpression
• ImplicitStackAllocArrayCreationExpression
• InterpolatedStringExpression
• AwaitExpression
• QueryExpression
• StackAllocArrayCreationExpression
• AnonymousObjectCreationExpression
• TupleType ???
• TupleExpression ???
• IsPatternExpression
• CheckedExpression
• ConditionalAccessExpression

Limitations

• Enumeration is currently transpiled only in TypeScript
• Delegate interop is not currently supported in any target
• HandledObject should inherit SafeHandle and stop using HadleRef
• All targets should make more use of SyntaxTree manipulation to implement their transpilation capabilities