Dissecting a C# Application Inside SharpDevelop Christian Holm Mike Krüger Bernhard Spuida Dissecting a C# Application Inside SharpDevelop © 2004 Apress All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. The authors and publisher have made every effort in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, Apress, nor its dealers or distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book. First Printed February 2003. Published by Apress L.P. 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 219, Berkeley, CA 94710 ISBN 1-86100-817-1 Trademark Acknowledgments We has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. Credits Authors Lead Technical Reviewer Christian Holm Christoph Wille Mike Krüger Bernhard Spuida Technical Reviewers Natalia Bortniker Commissioning Editor Jeroen Frijters Dan Kent Gavin McKay Markus Palme Technical Editors David Schultz Arun Nair Erick Sgarbi Veena Nair Jon Shute Gavin Smyth Managing Editor Poul Staugaard Louay Fatoohi Helmut Watson Project Manager Production Coordinator Charlotte Smith Neil Lote Indexer Production Assistant Andrew Criddle Paul Grove Proofreader Cover Chris Smith Natalie O' Donnell What You Need to Use This Book The following is the recommended system requirements for compiling and running SharpDevelop: ❑ Windows 2000 Professional or later ❑ The .NET Framework SDK (Freely available from Microsoft) In addition, this book assumes the following knowledge: ❑ Sound knowledge of .NET Framework fundamentals ❑ A good understanding of the C# Language Summary of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Features at a Glance 7 Chapter 2: Designing the Architecture 23 Chapter 3: Implementing the Core 51 Chapter 4: Building the Application with Add-ins 81 Chapter 5: Providing Functionality with Workspace Services 107 Chapter 6: The User Interface 135 Chapter 7: Internationalization 169 Chapter 8: Document Management 189 Chapter 9: Syntax Highlighting 219 Chapter 10: Search and Replace 235 Chapter 11: Writing the Editor Control 263 Chapter 12: Writing the Parser 291 Chapter 13: Code Completion and Method Insight 329 Chapter 14: Navigating Code with the Class Scout and the Assembly Scout 369 Chapter 15: The Designer Infrastructure 413 Chapter 16: mplementing a Windows Forms Designer 437 Chapter 17: Code Generation 465 Index 499 Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Code in This Book 2 Conventions 2 Customer Support 3 How to Download the Sample Code for the Book 3 Chapter 1: Features at a Glance 7 The idea behind SharpDevelop 8 SharpDevelop Software Requirements 8 SharpDevelop's Panels and Views 9 Limitations 12 Customizing SharpDevelop 12 Internationalization 12 Defining the Appearance 13 Customizations for Coding 14 Getting Started with Templates 14 Changing Syntax Highlighting 14 Code Completion and Method Insight 15 Bookmarks 16 Search and Replace Functionality 16 Compiling the Code 17 Managing Projects 17 Combines and Projects – What's in a Name? 17 Navigating the Project 17 The Project and Class Views of the World 18 Creating Windows Forms 18 Adding Controls to Windows Forms 19 Properties and Formatting of Controls 20 Summary 20 Table of Contents Chapter 2: Designing the Architecture 23 History of Architectural Design Decisions 23 The Early Stages 23 Building SharpDevelop with SharpDevelop 24 Correcting Bad Design Decisions 26 The Design Decisions 27 Designing Component-Exchangeability 29 Best Practices 30 Design Patterns 30 Singleton 31 Factory 31 Decorator 33 Strategy 35 Memento 36 Proxy 37 Coding Style Guideline 39 Defect Tracking and Testing 39 Bug Tracker 39 Unit Tests 40 Refactor Frequently 41 Design and Refactoring 42 Summary 48 Chapter 3: Implementing the Core 51 The AddIn Tree 52 Advantages of Using the AddIn Tree 53 The AddIn Tree Superstructure 56 Add-in Definition 57 From Tree Node to Running Object 60 Codon Creation 62 Conditions 64 AddIn Management 66 Property Management in SharpDevelop 70 The Idea behind the IXmlConvertable Interface 71 Overview of the IProperties Interface 71 The Default Implementation 72 Properties at Work 75 Property Persistence 76 Summary 79 ii Table of Contents Chapter 4: Building the Application with Add-ins 81 Working with Codons 82 The ICommand Interface 82 Making Menus Work 85 Codon Overview 93 Wiring up Add-ins with Conditions 96 Condition Structure 97 Defining Conditions 98 Overview of Available Conditions 100 Summary 104 Chapter 5: Providing Functionality with Workspace Services 107 Implementation Considerations 107 Requirements for Services 108 The ServiceManager 109 Defining Services 111 Common Services at your Service 112 File Utility Service 113 Property Service 119 Resource Service 119 String Parser Service 119 Ambience Service 121 Class Browser Icons Service 123 File Service 124 Project Service 126 Parser Service 131 Other Services 133 Summary 133 Chapter 6: The User Interface 135 Display Management 136 The Workbench Window 136 Views 137 Pads 139 Views and Pads Applied – An Integrated HTML Help Viewer 141 The HTML View 142 Navigating the Help File 148 Layout Managers 153 The Current and Future Implementation 166 Summary 167 iii Table of Contents Chapter 7: Internationalization 169 Handling Internationalization in SharpDevelop 171 Redrawing with Events 173 Accessing Resources 176 Managing Translations 180 The Translation Web Application 181 Localization Implications 182 Compiling to Resource Files 182 Generating Resource Files from XML 182 Generating Resource Files from the Database 184 Summary 186 Chapter 8: Document Management 189 Text Representation 190 Basic Sequence Data Structures 190 Arrays 190 Linked Lists 192 The Gap Buffer Approach 192 Theory of the Gap Buffer 193 The Gap Buffer in Practice 194 The Future – The Piece Table 197 Composite Sequence Data Structures 198 Representing Lines 199 Caret and Selection Management 206 The Text Model 210 Putting It All Together 212 Summary 216 Chapter 9: Syntax Highlighting 219 Syntax Highlighting Definitions 220 Increasing Ease of Use with XML 220 Implementing Syntax Highlighting 226 Validation of the Syntax Highlighting Definition File 226 The Sequence of Events from the Opening of a File to the Highlighting of the Text Editor Window 231 Summary 233 iv Table of Contents Chapter 10: Search and Replace 235 The Search Strategy 235 Inside Search and Replace 249 Basic Find and Replace Implementation 249 Using Algorithms 252 The Brute Force Algorithm 254 The Knuth-Morris-Pratt (KMP) Algorithm 256 Wildcard Search Strategy 257 Summary 260 Chapter 11: Writing the Editor Control 263 Introduction to the Editor 263 The TextArea Control 265 Theory 265 Getting Started 266 Event Handling 272 Updating 277 The TextAreaPainter 279 Mouse Management 285 Folding 286 SharpPad 287 Summary 289 Chapter 12: Writing the Parser 291 Need for a Parser 291 Parser and Language Theory 292 Basic Definitions and Theory 292 Grammar 292 Parsing 295 Technical Requirements 296 The SharpDevelop Parser 297 Design Decisions 297 Implementation 298 The Big Picture 298 Reflection Parsing for Assemblies 299 Persistent Parsing for the Framework Class Library 304 The C# Parser for the Editor 309 The Abstract Parser 316 Putting It All Together in the Parser Service 318 Summary 326 v Table of Contents Chapter 13: Code Completion and Method Insight 329 Resolving Matters 329 Code Completion 340 Method Insight 357 Summary 366 Chapter 14: Navigating Code with the Class Scout and the Assembly Scout 369 The Class Scout 369 Implementing the Class Scout 370 The Assembly Scout 383 Browsing References with an Assembly Scout 383 Writing the Assembly Scout 385 Summary 411 Chapter 15: The Designer Infrastructure 413 Forms Designer Overview 413 Implementation Considerations 414 Design Overview 415 The .NET Component Model 416 The Service Interfaces 418 .NET Designers 419 The Root Designer 420 Designer Host Implementation 421 Designer Host Services 431 The ComponentChangeService 431 The Name Creation Service 432 The Design Panel 433 Summary 434 vi Table of Contents Chapter 16: Implementing a Windows Forms Designer 437 Designer Services 437 Toolbox Service 438 Menu Command Service 442 Executing the Standard Commands 446 Implementing a Key Event Handler 447 Selection Service 450 Additional Important Services 454 Designer Option Service 455 Dictionary Service 457 UI Service 457 Type Descriptor Filter Service 460 Unimplemented Services 462 Summary 462 Chapter 17: Code Generation 465 Making Components Persistent 465 The XML Forms Persistence Format 466 Generating the XML 467 Loading the XML 470 The Designer Serialization Service 474 Generating C#/VB.NET Code 475 Round-tripping 484 Summary 496 Index 499 vii Table of Contents viii About the Authors Christian Holm Christian started his writing career in mid-2000, writing technical articles for AspHeute.com, which has grown to the largest German-centric developer platform for Active Server Pages and Microsoft .NET-related technology. His focus shifted from classic ASP to .NET when he was introduced to Microsoft’s .NET vision shortly after it was introduced to the public at the Professional Developers Conference 2000 in Orlando. Since that time he has eagerly adapted the rich features of the .NET technology for his business and additionally revealed the attained .NET experience to the developers reading his articles at AspHeute.com. In 2001 he got in touch with Wrox Press to write his first chapter for the Professional .NET Framework book. Since then he has worked for Wrox on freelance basis as a technical editor. I would like to thank everybody involved in this project at Wrox, especially Charlotte Smith and Daniel Kent, for their great support on this book project and the technical editors, especially Arun Nair, for their valuable comments on my drafts.