Question

This question is more out of curiosity than a project requirement or a problem.

I have a Non-CLS compliant code in one language (say C#), and I need to use it like that only in my current language (across projects, so making internal is not a choice), and at the same time want to allow other languages (say VB) to be able to call the conflicting implementations without generating compile time error.

For instance,

//C#
public class SecurityService
{
....
    public void Print()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("print"); //This method prints Service Name in lower case
    }

    public void PRINT()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("PRINT");//This method prints service name in UPPER case.
    }
}

'VB.Net 

Module ServiceReader

    Sub Main()
        Dim service As New SecurityService()
        service.print() 'Compile time error: print is ambiguos
    End Sub

End Module

Problem: I need to avoid the compile time error here by somehow hiding one of my ‘print’ methods from cross language projects (allowing C# projects to call the desired implementation).

Thanks for your interest.

Answer 1

A language like VB.NET offers no escape around its fundamental syntax rule that identifiers are case insensitive. It is not hard to solve, you can simply write a little static adapter method in a case sensitive language like C# that makes the call.

public static class Interop {
    public static void Print2(SecurityService obj) {
        obj.PRINT();
    }
}

You can completely shove it under the doormat by making it an extension method, assuming the language supports it. There will be no actual runtime overhead when the jit optimizer is done with it.