CodeDOM Replacement

[Code-Grump]

Just trying to make changes to our current code generation (adding cancellation tokens to method signatures), I'm reminded how truly painful CodeDOM is to work with. I would like to consider replacing this object-heavy system with something a little easier to maintain and whilst I've found a lot of success using a text-based approach for Roslyn generators, I'd be interested to hear if there are any opinions or ideas on what might make for an easier time maintaining code-generators.

[clrudolphi]

TBH, I don't find it all that bad. But I do acknowledge that most other developers hate it. And it is woefully out of date.

I tend to vacillate between using really super simple text template approaches (like T4, aspx, Blazor) or something oo (like CodeDOM and Expressions).

I don't have enough experience with Roslyn code gen to say definitively, but what I've seen of it appears on the surface to be an awkward mix of the two. So I would admit that it intimidates me a bit. If we can keep its object model and mechanics out of the way enough to ensure that the template itself is obvious, then I'm willing to give it a try.

A more radical approach might be to drop the code-gen and build an interpreter around the pickle data structure emitted by the Gherkin parser.

[Code-Grump]

Roslyn's Syntax model is only appropriate for reading code trees and making modifications. Effectively none of the Roslyn code generators use it to emit code, instead just writing text using StringBuilder is considered the norm. 😅

[clrudolphi]

using StringBuilder is considered the norm.

Oh dear.

How about something like mustache?

[304NotModified]

[Code-Grump]

Sorry, this wasn't a question about Roslyn generators (which don't have an opinion on this) but about how to emit code. 😅