CFReflector

  • Thread starter Thread starter E. Danut
  • Start date Start date
E

E. Danut

I find myself often programming on my PDA (using the Pocket C#
compiler) and often in need of a Reflector like program to see
classes, methods, parameters and such of the framework.

Not finding one, I've developped one myself (it will very soon be
available as open-source as it is almost complete (v.0.9), as soon as
I "tie up" some loose ends).

In the program I encountered a problem: It fails to load certain
assemblies. I load assemblies with "Assembly.Load" and the assembly
name (just the friendly name). Of the CLR this worked on some
assemblies and failed on others. Notably it wouldn't work on any
assembly that I didn't use before hand (because, as I read on MSDN the
Load function on CF doesn't know how to look for assemblies in the
GAC). I solved that, in part, by forcing the program to load some
assemblies like System.Data by some dummy instructions. But that still
doesn't work for System.Net.IrDA and Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.

On the other hand, the program also works easily with the OpenNETCF -
but it requires that the dlls be in the same folder. I haven't been
able to overcome that limitation. But even with all the Dlls there
some assemblies fail to load like OpenNETCF.Notification,
OpenNETCF.Data, OpenNETCF.Net.

If you have any ideea of what is going on, please help. At least give
me some feedback on the project. I will return with an address for the
site and project and source code in a day or two.

Danut E.
 
The problem you are encountering is the same as occurs when trying to
document these libraries with NDoc because they reference .NETCF specific
libraries - Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.dll (.NETCF only) and
System.Data.Common.dll (on the desktop all these classes are in System.Data)

Peter
 
....in addition, what is wrong with existing decompilers, like Reflector? You
cannot run it on the device but you can browse CF assemblies with it on the
desktop...

Cheers
Daniel
 
Maybe I wasn't very clear - my reflector works ON THE .NETCF, ON THE
PDA. So, why wouldn't they load then? (I hope it will become clearer
once I put it on-line, I've just been busy lately).

Danut E.
 
I mentioned in the introduction that I occasionally program ON my pda,
directly, without the computer handy. Why, on the computer there's
Intellisense & MSDN which, together are way better than what I'm doing
:). But when I'm away from the computer, and need to write something I
am without any kind of documentation, so this serves as a small,
portable, effective "help". So, to answer your question: What's wrong
with Reflector IS that it cannot run on the device.

Danut E.
 
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