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C# as a Script

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Ehtyar:
Hi all.
I'm posting this in relation to this thread. It's intended to be just a quick intro to using C# as a scripting language instead of a compiled language.
Due to the fact that CLR compiled applications must be accompanied by a compiler, .net languages provide a unique opportunity to compile code on-the-fly. In this case, we're using a compiled executable to call the compiler to compile code we provide at the moment we wish to execute it via Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider(), thus simulating the behavior of a scripting language. There are two engines I've found to accomplish this task:

* C# Script for .NET 2.0 is the engine I eventually chose. It is extremely small and relatively simple, therefore is also a cinch to modify.
* CS_Script is the bulkier, yet more feature full of the two, this one provides for caching of the compiled script, and for embedding the "interpreter" itself into any .net application.I chose the former both because it was far easier to modify, and because it runs happier on Mono than the alternative. Attached is a console and GUI build of my slightly modified version (scripts written for the console misbehave if run from the GUI interpreter). The changes include:

* The System, System.IO, System.Text, System.Collections.Generic, and System.Windows.Forms namespaces are included by default, and the necessary assemblies are referenced.
* The full path of the executing script will be provided as the first argument on the command line.
* The code generated from the scripts will be optimized and will not contain any debug information.
* The interpreter will compile code that does not contain a Main(). However, if you provide a Main(), you must also provide an enclosing class { } , and optionally, a namespace { }. This provides for multiple classes or namespaces in a single script.I hope this info will be of use to somebody. As always, feedback is much appreciated

Ehtyar.

mouser:
Cool.  Looking forward to seeing how you use it.

Ehtyar:
I used it for my binary parsing problem Mouse Man (first link). I won't show the script here because it's not appropriate for DC, but if anyone would like some info on how things went, feel free to ask any questions.

Ehtyar.

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