Is is possible to mix C# and VB.NET files in one project when using SharpDevelop?
Probably not, at least not directly... you would have to use two compilers to produce one assembly, which is not supported AFAIK. However, if your final goal is to produce a single assembly, you could probably compile two separate assemblies and merge them using ILMerge
if you are trying to make a vb project, but vb doesnt have the expressions and statements you were looking for, make the two parts seperately, and convert one to the main language the program is made in. to convert it, use sharpdevelop, which is a better version of vs.net
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This is question is inspired by the question: In what areas does F# make "absolute no sense in using"?
In theory, it should be possible to use any .NET supported language in a single project. Since every thing should be compiled into IL code, then linked into a single assembly.
Some benefits would include the ability to use say F# for one class, where F# is more suited to implement it's function, and C# for another.
Is there some technical limitation I'm overlooking that prevents this sort of setup?
A project is restricted to a single language because, under the hood, a project is not much more than an MSBuild script which calls one of the command-line compilers to produce an assembly from the various source code files "contained" in the project folder. There is a different compiler for each language (CSC.exe is for example the one for C#), and what each project has to do to turn its "contained" source code into an assembly differs with each language.
To allow multiple languages to be compiled into a single assembly, the project would basically have to produce an assembly for each language, then IL-Merge them. This is costly, requires complex automation and project file code generation, and in most circumstances it's a pretty fringe need, so the VS team simply didn't build it in.
While projects are restricted to a single language, a solution is not... and solutions can contain multiple projects.
As others mentioned, a project is a stand-alone unit that is compiled by a single compiler.
I hear the question about including e.g. one F# type in a larger C# project quite often, so I'll add some details from the F# specific point of view. There are quite a few technical problems that would make it really difficult to mix F# and C# in one project:
C# compiler sees all classes, while F# type declarations are order-dependent. I'm not sure how would you even specify what types should the F# code see at which point.
F# compiler needs to know how declarations are used in order to infer types. Would it also get usage information from the C# compiler?
The two compilers use different representation of types. When compiling, there are no System.Type information, so how would they share the information? (Both of them would need to agree on some common interface that allows them to include language-specific information - and the information may be also incomplete).
I think this is enough to explain that doing this is not just a feature that may or may not be done depending on the schedule. It is actually an interesting research problem.
For what it's worth, it's possible to have ASP.NET projects that use C# and VB.NET (or anything else, you define the compilers in web.config), just in different files.
All code files are processed by a single compiler. That's why a project can only contain a single language.
Mixing languages may not make much sense either, since each language generates it's own IL.
This of course doesn't restrict you form having multiple projects from different langauges in the same solution, since each project is compiled independently
Consider using ILMerge if you want to maintain a single .exe or .dll built by a number of different compilers.
Technically, you can mix languages in a single project, if one (or more) of those languages are scripting languages. See How to use Microsoft.Scripting.Hosting? for more details.
I know this isn't what you were talking about, but it's a little fun fact if you weren't aware.
The project file is nothing but an elevated list of command line parameters to the relevant compiler. A file with the extension of .csproj contains the parameters for a C# compiler, .vbproj for the VB.NET compiler and so on.
You can however create two or more projects in the same solution file, one for each language and then link them together in one exe file using ILMerge.
I want to build a website in ASP.net, and to integrate a module which is written in C#(too complicated to rewrite in VB or ASP).
Now I just want to know whether it is possible to have a website that integrates all three?
Thank you.
Yes. You can have a WebSite integrating all three.
Just make your complicated C# a .NET library and include it in your VB.NET/ASP.NET project.
I think you only have to reference the dll's from your modules which are written in c# or VB to call your public functions. I've done this in a windows form application and it worked fine.
You may also want to consider simply learning C#. Most of what you know from VB.NET is directly usable in C#, since most work involves using framework classes and the languages share most features.
It is mostly a matter of syntactic preference, and while a new syntax may sting your eyes for a bit the learning curve will be steep and soon you will have left your old preferences behind.
You have a couple of options when integrating languages in ASP.NET. If you're creating a "web site" (as opposed to a "web application" which can use only one language) then each page can use a specified language, because essentially each page is compiled separately. Some can use VB, some can use C#. No problem.
However, what you describe sounds even simpler. You claim that there is an existing C# module which you want to use in your VB website. Is this module compiled into its own assembly? If that's the case then the language that was used to create the assembly is immaterial. Once it's compiled, it's a .NET assembly and can be referenced by any .NET language. It's no longer a matter of VB vs. C# (or any other language) once it's compiled.
If it's not a compiled assembly, but rather a bunch of class files, can it be compiled as its own assembly? That's generally good for keeping things modular. Within a single .NET solution you can have each project use different languages without problem. This module can be a library project written in C# and your site can be a web site (or web application) project written in VB, which references the library project.
Since all these assemblies ultimatly use the same CLR (hence the name Common Language Runtime), they can be used together with no problem.
Frequently i have to program in VB.Net and Visual C#, so it would be helpful if someone can provide with a list of Refrence for Classes of in VB.net and C#.
I mean like
My.Computer.Registry in VB Maps to Microsoft.Win32.Registry in C#.
Similarly i want a refrence of other classes.
In your example, you can use the latter in both C# and VB.NET. The former is a VB.NET "crutch" (or "shortcut", to put it nicely) so that VB developers can find stuff via IntelliSense, and are contained within a special assembly used in VB (but that can also needlessly be referenced from C#). My suggestion: don't use "My.*", use the real classes that are available from any .NET language (incl. C#) - it will make moving between languages easier and you will be able to ask BCL questions more clearly on SO.
I have a collection of about 10,000 small VBScript programs (50-100 lines each) and a small collection of larger ones, and I'm looking for a way to convert them to C# without resorting to by-hand transliteration. The programs are automated test cases for a web application, written for HP/Mercury's QuickTest Pro, and I'm trying to turn them into test cases for Selenium. Luckily, the tests appear to be well-written, using a library of building blocks and idioms (the larger programs), so the test cases actually resemble a domain-specific language more than they do VBScript, and the QTP-ness is well-buried inside the libraries.
Ideally, what I'm searching for is a tool that can do the syntactic transformation from VBScript to C# for both the dsl-ish test cases and also the more complicated building-block libraries. That would leave me with a manual cleanup of the libraries, and probably very little work on the test cases. If I could find a VBScript-to-VB.NET translator, I'd take that also, as I suspect I could compile the VB.NET and then de-compile to C# using .NET Relector or something similar. Plan B is to write a translator of my own for the test cases, since they're in a very straight-line style, but it wouldn't help with the libraries.
Any suyggestions? I haven't written a compiler in at least 15 years, and while I haven't forgotten how, I'm not looking forward to it - least of all for VBScript!
Most vbscript is valid VB6 code, so one option would be to just rename them from .vbs to whatever it was VB6 used and then add them all to a VB6 project and see if the VB6 - VB.Net upgrade wizard that comes with some versions of Visual Studio can help you out.
GreatMigrations has a tool that does a good job converting VB6 to C# (and other languages). I know the company is willing to work with organizations to tailor the product to their specific needs.
I'm absolutely stunned by the fact that MS just couldn't get it right to navigate to the definition of a method, when you're combining C# and VB projects in one solution. If you're trying to navigate from VB to C#, it brings up the "Object Explorer", and if from C# to VB, it generates a metadata file.
Honestly, what is so complicated about jumping between different languages, especially if they're supposedly using the same CLR?
Does anyone know why this is, or if there's any workaround?
Did they get it right in VS 2008?
#Keith, I am afraid you may be right about your answer. I am truly stunned that Microsoft screwed this up so badly. Does anyone have any ideas for a workaround?
#Mladen Mihajlovic - that's exactly the situation I'm describing. Try it out yourself; project references don't make a shred of difference.
This is general to both languages.
F12 in VB.Net always takes you to the object browser
F12 in C# always takes you to a meta-data definition
This is a deliberate mechanism to try and match expected behaviour for upgrading users. The C# way gives you the right information, but the VB way is what users of VBA or VB6 will expect.
The behaviour is the same in VS2008.
These are the rules for external projects, both should take you to the code if it is in the same solution.
You're quite right - VB projects treat C# projects as external and vice versa - you can't navigate from code in one to the other. I've tested this in the latest VS2008 and it's still an issue.
It also fails to get complete meta-data. Add a method to your C# code and it won't appear in VB's intellisense until you compile the C# assembly.
This is similar to how components appear in the toolstrip, so I figure the normal navigate to code functionality is a feature of code with a common compilers, and everything else uses some kind of reflection.
As long as you're still building a PDB it should be able to find the files, I guess it doesn't because they need it to support release builds too. It couldn't find the line of code without the PDB lookups.
Make sure that your reference is to the VB project and not just a DLL file.
It's a known issue, the workaround are two: use ctrl+, or use some plugin that add this function, like resharper (that will add this function in the F12).