PDC05: Day Four (Ask the Experts still more)

After the C++ session I went back to the Tools & Languages Lounge to see if I could turn up either Anson Tsao or Jeff Peil. As I walked up to the lounge they were talking to each other! I asked them about my COM/CLR interop inside my "framework." The next ten minutes filled my head to the bursting point; I probably looked like a victim from the movie "Scanners." They said that I can host managed objects in the "framework" by compiling it with the /CLR switch. It can then discover the objects to load by assembly (strong name). There are System.Runtime services for finding the COM interfaces. You can also request a managed interop wrapper from the runtime. Interfaces created in the managed code wizard may need to be manually converted to MIDL, but when you do retain the detailed types. As a side note, it will be easier to host Avalon (WPF) than WinForms because of simpler hosting. Unless we need to use WinForms, we should try to stick to Avalon.

When they finished filling my brain, I stumbled off to take notes about the detail. There were a number of folks playing Halo 2 and when they finished none other than Sara Ford (blog) offered her spot to me. I wish I could still play games, but a weekend of solid Hexen taught me I better not or I stop working. Isn't addiction terrible?