 | | | dotNet (was: IDE) | dotNet (was: IDE) 2005-04-06 - By kim aldis
Back
yeah, the codebase thing threw up all sorts of warnings but basically it
worked and I got to see the message from callMe() in XSI. I'm spanky new to
C# but I'm looking at it because C++ has just too much crap surrounding it
for someone who only needs to fall back on it once a month or so. If you
figure out the correct way I'd like to hear.
One question; how would one register this on a machine that doesn't have c#
installed?
__ __
From: owner-xsi@(protected) [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf Of
Brad Friedman
Sent: 05 April 2005 23:28
To: XSI@(protected)
Subject: dotNet (was: IDE)
nice. Thats pretty much what I was going to do. The only thing that seems
a tad off is the line:
regasm AxComp.dll /tlb:AxCompNet.dll /codebase
the filename specified after the ./tlb: should end with the extension .tlb,
not dll. You can roll a .tlb into a dll as a resource with another command
line app (forgot what its called). But its not neccesary. And apparently
the .tlb file is not all that important to registering the typelib
because... it works even though its got the wrong extension :)
The only other thing that needs ironing out is the nonsense with the
/codebase flag. the docs from MS read:
Creates a Codebase entry in the registry. The Codebase entry specifies the
file path for an assembly that is not installed in the global assembly
cache. You should not specify this option if you will subsequently install
the assembly that you are registering into the global assembly cache. The
assemblyFile argument that you specify with the /codebase option must be a
strong-named assembly.
its not all that difficult to either install the assembly into the GAC and
skip the /codebase flag, or make the assembly strongly named. So I doubt
that will cause much of an issue down the line once you get to installation
issues.
I'm going to try giving this stuff a run in the next few days. If I get a
LogMessage("HelloXSIWorld") functioning from c# I'm sure you'll hear from me
:)
-brad
kim aldis wrote:
I tried this quickly and it works
http://www.devhood.com/messages/message_view-2 (See http://iew-2.ora-code.com).aspx?thread_id=16569
but like you say, it seems kind of a specialised registration. That said,
it's way shorter than the messing around you need to do with C++; even if
there's a bit of a performance hit it's worth it just for how easy it is. I
also kind of like the idea I can just create a single file and compile from
the CL. Nice and simple. When I get time I'll be looking at it a bit closer.
__ __
From: owner-xsi@(protected) [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf Of
Brad Friedman
Sent: 05 April 2005 18:13
To: XSI@(protected)
Subject: Re: IDE
Thats the tricky and confusing part. I'm going to try using the regasm tool
to register an assembly as a com type library next and see if that will
work. But my understanding is that the .net assembly will need to be
registered in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) in order for it to work. And
it will need a strong name. I suspect this will work. The downside is that
I doubt this will work with an xsi .addon install. you'll need to install
the .net assembly separate. Second, it wont really work the same way XSI's
execution environment is set up. XSI likes to swap out com binaries via
environment variables to make it possible to run multiple versions of XSI
side by side. It also lets you put dlls in a workgroup and it handles
registering them with com seamlessly. But the way .net wants to do its com
serving, it needs to be global. You can't register .net assemblies with com
using the usual registration tools (the way XSI does it when you install an
addon). You have to use the regasm tool. I assume XSI doesn't do that
itself. Though perhaps it should in the next version (nudge nudge wink
wink).
I think its possible to make it work and I'll try and force it over the next
week or so. I just don't think it will be as nice and cushy as a native com
solution that XSI is built to handle seamlessly. But I could be wrong :)
And second (though maybe this is a given) none of this will work on linux as
things currently sit. Neither Mono nor Portable.net implement any kind of
COM interop. They do have PInvoke however, which is why wrapping the c++
api with SWIG was particularly interesting.
The atempt at using a hosted usercontrol was analagus to a ActiveX
control... kinda. Its really hard to tell what is going on under the hood.
Even microsoft documentation suggests that hosting a .net usercontrol via an
OBJECT tag is infact ActiveX. Other times it seems they're just saying its
"like" ActiveX to the point that you code it the same. But the whole thing
is temporarily moot as a proper activex control is contained in a single
.dll. A .net usercontrol that is using com interop to talk to the XSI type
library is two dlls. So it wont work. I thought about ripping the .cs file
that the tlbimp tool generates and handhacking it into the assembly
namespace so its all self contained in one dll. I have just not tried it
yet.
This is all kinda in progress :) Its nice to be a student on sabbatical.
You get to spin your wheels on crazy R&D projects for the sake of it.
-brad
kim aldis wrote:
What about just creating ActiveX controls?
__ __
From: owner-xsi@(protected) [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf Of
Brad Friedman
Sent: 05 April 2005 12:51
To: XSI@(protected)
Subject: Re: IDE
As far as XSI integration goes:
have not had much luck. clr languages on windows can import COM type
libraries and program to them. That part works fine. But I've been unable
to finish off the loop as it were... getting XSI to call into a .net
assembly in any way. My latest attempt involved creating user controls to
embed in netview pages (like java applets or activex controls) but
unfortunately it turns out there are complications with multiple DLLs and IE
that makes it unreasonable.
I've also tried getting SWIG to wrap the XSI C++ interface in C#. It was
able to wrap a few header files but the majority spat out errors and I
decided I'm not programmer enough to fix them.
I've not given up yet. I still have a few tricks to try out.
If I ever got XSI to work with c# I'd be the happiest little coder...
-[kim aldis]
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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=609022707-06042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>yeah, the codebase thing threw up all sorts of warnings
but
basically it worked and I got to see the message from callMe() in XSI. I'm
spanky new to C# but I'm looking at it because C++ has just too much crap
surrounding it for someone who only needs to fall back on it once a month or so
.
If you figure out the correct way I'd like to hear.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=609022707-06042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=609022707-06042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>One question; how would one register this on a machine
that
doesn't have c# installed?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=609022707-06042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=609022707-06042005></SPAN> </DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid;
MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> owner-xsi@(protected)
[mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Brad
Friedman<BR><B>Sent:</B> 05 April 2005 23:28<BR><B>To:</B>
XSI@(protected)<BR><B>Subject:</B> dotNet (was: IDE)<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>nice. Thats pretty much what I was going to do. The
only thing that seems a tad off is the line:<BR><BR><SPAN
class=MsgViewAlternateBody>regasm AxComp.dll /tlb:AxCompNet.dll
/codebase<BR><BR>the filename specified after the ./tlb: should end with the
extension .tlb, not dll. You can roll a .tlb into a dll as a resource
with another command line app (forgot what its called). But its not
neccesary. And apparently the .tlb file is not all that important to
registering the typelib because... it works even though its got the wrong
extension :)<BR><BR>The only other thing that needs ironing out is the
nonsense with the /codebase flag. the docs from MS read:<BR><BR>Creates
a Codebase entry in the registry. The Codebase entry specifies the file path
for an assembly that is not installed in the global assembly cache. You
should
not specify this option if you will subsequently install the assembly that
you
are registering into the global assembly cache. The assemblyFile argument
that
you specify with the /codebase option must be a strong-named
assembly.<BR><BR>its not all that difficult to either install the assembly
into the GAC and skip the /codebase flag, or make the assembly strongly
named. So I doubt that will cause much of an issue down the line once
you get to installation issues.<BR><BR>I'm going to try giving this stuff a
run in the next few days. If I get a LogMessage("HelloXSIWorld")
functioning from c# I'm sure you'll hear from me
:)<BR><BR>-brad<BR><BR><BR></SPAN><BR>kim aldis wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid200504051723.j35HNSPm011017@(protected)
type="cite">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=390373417-05042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>I tried this quickly and it works</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=390373417-05042005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=390373417-05042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2><A
href="http://www.devhood.com/messages/message_view-2 (See http://iew-2.ora-code.com).aspx?thread_id=16569"
>http://www.devhood.com/messages/message_view-2 (See http://iew-2.ora-code.com).aspx?thread_id=16569</A></FONT><
/SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=390373417-05042005></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=390373417-05042005><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>but like you say, it seems kind of a specialised
registration. That said, it's way shorter than the messing around you need
to do with C++; even if there's a bit of a performance hit it's worth it
just for how easy it is. I also kind of like the idea I can just create a
single file and compile from the CL. Nice and simple. When I get time I'll
be looking at it a bit closer.</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,255) 2px
solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)">owner-xsi@(protected)</A> [<A
class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)">mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)</A>]
<B>On Behalf Of </B>Brad Friedman<BR><B>Sent:</B> 05 April 2005
18:13<BR><B>To:</B> <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:XSI@(protected)">XSI@(protected)</A><BR><B>Subject:</B>
Re: IDE<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>Thats the tricky and confusing part. I
'm
going to try using the regasm tool to register an assembly as a com type
library next and see if that will work. But my understanding is
that
the .net assembly will need to be registered in the Global Assembly Cache
(GAC) in order for it to work. And it will need a strong name. 
;
I suspect this will work. The downside is that I doubt this will
work with an xsi .addon install. you'll need to install the .net
assembly separate. Second, it wont really work the same way XSI's
execution environment is set up. XSI likes to swap out com binaries
via environment variables to make it possible to run multiple versions of
XSI side by side. It also lets you put dlls in a workgroup and it
handles registering them with com seamlessly. But the way .net
wants
to do its com serving, it needs to be global. You can't register
.net assemblies with com using the usual registration tools (the way XSI
does it when you install an addon). You have to use the regasm
tool. I assume XSI doesn't do that itself. Though perhaps it
should in the next version (nudge nudge wink wink).<BR><BR>I think its
possible to make it work and I'll try and force it over the next week or
so. I just don't think it will be as nice and cushy as a native com
solution that XSI is built to handle seamlessly. But I could be
wrong :)<BR><BR>And second (though maybe this is a given) none of this
will work on linux as things currently sit. Neither Mono nor
Portable.net implement any kind of COM interop. They do have
PInvoke
however, which is why wrapping the c++ api with SWIG was particularly
interesting.<BR><BR>The atempt at using a hosted usercontrol was analagus
to a ActiveX control... kinda. Its really hard to tell what is
going
on under the hood. Even microsoft documentation suggests that
hosting a .net usercontrol via an OBJECT tag is infact ActiveX.
Other times it seems they're just saying its "like" ActiveX to the point
that you code it the same. But the whole thing is temporarily moot
as a proper activex control is contained in a single .dll. A .net
usercontrol that is using com interop to talk to the XSI type library is
two dlls. So it wont work. I thought about ripping the .cs
file that the tlbimp tool generates and handhacking it into the assembly
namespace so its all self contained in one dll. I have just not
tried it yet.<BR><BR>This is all kinda in progress :) Its nice to
be
a student on sabbatical. You get to spin your wheels on crazy
R&D projects for the sake of it.<BR><BR>-brad<BR><BR>kim aldis wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid200504051611.j35GB7Pm002759@(protected)
type="cite">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=062092416-05042005>What about just creating ActiveX
controls?</SPAN></FONT></DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,255)
2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> <A
class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)">owner-xsi@(protected)</A> [<A
class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)">mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)<
/A>]
<B>On Behalf Of </B>Brad Friedman<BR><B>Sent:</B> 05 April 2005
12:51<BR><B>To:</B> <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:XSI@(protected)">XSI@(protected)</A><BR><B>Subject:<
/B>
Re: IDE<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>As far as XSI integration
goes:<BR><BR>have not had much luck. clr languages on windows
can import COM type libraries and program to them. That part
works fine. But I've been unable to finish off the loop as it
were... getting XSI to call into a .net assembly in any way. My
latest attempt involved creating user controls to embed in netview
pages (like java applets or activex controls) but unfortunately it
turns out there are complications with multiple DLLs and IE that
makes
it unreasonable.<BR><BR>I've also tried getting SWIG to wrap the XSI
C++ interface in C#. It was able to wrap a few header files but
the majority spat out errors and I decided I'm not programmer enough
to fix them.<BR><BR>I've not given up yet. I still have a few
tricks to try out.<BR><BR>If I ever got XSI to work with c# I'd be
the
happiest little coder...<BR><BR>-<SPAN class=062092416-05042005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>[kim
aldis] </FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><
/BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
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