IDL and .NET toolsets

From: Reece Dunn (msclrhd_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-07-01 10:37:05

I am currently working on providing a toolset to allow IDL files to be 
compiled. I have a simple version up and running, but it has several 
limitations:

[1] It is dependant on msidl - I am considering extending it to support 
others like a CORBA IDL compiler.

[2] The Microsoft version of midl is dependant on cl for preprocessing, so 
needs a similar prefixing system if using the msvc toolset. I haven't tested 
with Borland and am unsure about others like CodeWarrior and GCC.

NOTE: It might be useful to import the prefixing logic so other tools (e.g. 
RC and IDL) can utelize it without the need for specific handlers for the 
tools when using prefixed toolsets. I use the term "prefixed toolsets" here 
because the Metrowerks toolset (CodeWarrior X) also requires prefixing 
logic. Generalizing the prefix might help when it comes to supporting the 
CodeWarrior toolset:
msvc -- prefix = [path]/vcvars32.bat
mwcw -- prefix = ...
* -- prefix = ""

[3] There is very little support for configurability at the moment in terms 
of options/flags supported.

-----

I am also considering writing tools for the .NET framework, including ILAsm, 
C#, VB.NET and JScript.NET. Is there any interest in this?

As an aside to this, are there any plans to add options to support .NET/CLR 
in the VC++ toolset?

Regards,
Reece

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