CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netcdll
user34537
user34537

Reputation:

How to smoothly develop a C lib for C#/.NET?

I am developing a complex library in C++ and i plan on having a C interface so others can load up the DLL and easily access the lib. I haven't tried writing code in C# that access C code. I did a quick google and found code that uses a lot of attributes.

What can I do to keep my interface simple enough to not cause a headache trying to keep .NET in sync with it? Is there some kind of header generation tool i may use? Do i only use simple POD structs? I'm unsure how i should handle types as they are passed around as pointers. I am also thinking maybe i should avoid using anything that is a not an int/string or array.

I am developing it using MSVC but mostly using it with GCC. I know i should use the calling convention __stdcall. Beyond what i said i am totally clueless. I actually dont know how to load the DLL into .NET.

What can i do to ensure everything works correctly when writing my C lib and getting it to run with .NET?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 87

Answers (1)

Seva Alekseyev
Seva Alekseyev

Reputation: 61378

Consider putting together a COM interface. Consuming COM from .NET is marginally easier than P/Invoke; at least you won't have to spell out prototypes for all functions in C#, the COM typelib importer will do that for you.

Upvotes: 2

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