Proposal: Inline Languages

Proposal

I’d like to propose an idea for C# 8: inline languages. C and C++ have the __asm keyword which opens a new syntactical scope for inline assembly coding [1][2]. Proposed are such nested scopes in C# 8 for an open-ended set of languages.

Inline languages are envisioned as implemented by .NET components and interoperable with integrated development environments, compilers and debuggers.

Modes of Operation

Three modes of operation are compatible with inline languages:

1. As per __asm, generates program logic
2. Generates program logic which generates a runtime object
3. Embeds a resource into an assembly and generates program logic to load it and to parse it into a runtime object

Advantages

1. Software quality
   1. Maintainability - suitability for debugging (localization and correction of errors) and for modification and extension of functionality
   2. Readability
   3. Testability - suitability for allowing the programmer to follow program execution (runtime behavior under given conditions) and for debugging
2. Optimization with MSIL
3. Complexity reduction in use of nested languages
   1. data languages (XML, RDF, CSV, etc) with IDE features
   2. querying languages (SQL, SPARQL, etc) with IDE features
   3. programming languages (Prolog, etc) with IDE features
   4. special purpose languages (SRGS, SSML, grammars) with IDE features

Examples

using language __msil = System.Runtime.MsilComponent;

class Example1
{
  void Function()
  {
    int x;

    __msil
    {
      ... x;
    }
  }
}

using language __xml = System.Xml.XmlComponent;

class Example2
{
  void Function()
  {
    System.Xml.XmlDocument x1 = __xml
    {
      <!-- -->
    }
    System.Xml.XmlDocumentFragment x2 = __xml
    {
      <!-- -->
    }
  }
}

Scenarios

Ideas for inline language scenarios include:

__msil, __xml, __rdf, __n3, __sql, __sparql, __pls, __srgs, __ssml, __antlr, __grammar, __prolog

References

[1] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/45yd4tzz.aspx [2] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4ks26t93.aspx

[dsaf]

F#:

public void PrintColor(Color color)
{
    return
    __fs
    {
        match color with
        | Color.Red -> printfn "Red"
        | Color.Green -> printfn "Green"
        | Color.Blue -> printfn "Blue"
        | _ -> ()
    };
}

[alrz]

While we’re at it,

class HelloWorld
{
  static void Main()
  {
    __bf
    {
      ++++++++[>++++[>++>+++>+++>+<<<<-]>
      +>+>->>+[<]<-]>>.>---.+++++++..+++.
      >>.<-.<.+++.------.--------.>>+.>++.
    }
  }
}

+