hari's WebLog

Why doesn't MenuItem have a Tag?

Try to give a tool which can import DLL(SDK DLL) into .net framework.

I had the head and dll files,but it is a hard job if there are many function declarations in the dll.

Roboo:

I pinged the CLR folks and asked them if they could make the tool you asked for, here's their response. If you post your answer here, I'll make sure it gets to them:
Several times in the past, we’ve got feedback that it’s hard to write pinvoke declarations. We were asked to either provide a tool that would take a native header file and produce pinvoke declarations in C# and/or VB.NET or to publish pinvoke declarations for Win32 APIs. The first ask is unfortunately impossible to do 100% correctly since native header files are too ambiguous to be automatically convertible. For example, how would such tool convert char* parameter? As String, StringBuilder, ref char or char[]? It’s hard to know unless you read docs. The second ask was technically possible of course but we would always run into issue of resources and benefits i.e. is it really worth doing?

Currently, we are investigating variation of the second solution, which is publishing all pinvoke declarations we have in our code base in some searchable form (both C# and VB.NET variations). We are also planning to possibly allow community to post their own pinvoke declarations and grow database of declarations over time.

We are interested to know if this would be useful. Even though we couldn’t publish all Win32 API declarations (or any other 3rd party API declarations) we hope that a) there would be reasonable chance you could find declarations you need, b) you would be able to use database to learn how to write your own declarations, and c) you would be able to submit missing declarations and help other developers.

Please let us know if you have any feedback about this. Is this indeed an issue for you? Would such database help or even solve your issues with writing pinvoke declarations?

Firstly,I think I must express my thanks to you and your colleagues.
If I can choose,I prefer to the first choice since there are so many 3rd SDK developed everyday.
After discussed with any of my friends,I think you can develop the tools that can implement all kinds of decalrations and users can choose which one is their best choice.
Or users can define a dictionary before they begin the convert-steps,the ......

I know it is a hard job,but trust me.There are many many many many people are eager to wait for this tool.