C# puzzle of the day

Lately I’ve been exploring old prototype code I wrote year ago. It always amazes me to se how my coding style changes over the years. It also intrigues me, because it’s a kind of cross between archeology and journaling. I can see what I was doing years ago. I wrote this little C++ memory simulation back in 2002, for a the memory component of a little CPU simulator:

struct memory { byte_t* mem; unsigned int size;`memory(unsigned int x = vpc::mem_size)   {   mem = new byte_t[x];   size = x;   //memset(mem, 0, size);   }  ~memory()   {   if(mem != 0)     {     delete mem;     mem = 0;     size = 0;     }   }

template T get(unsigned int idx)   {   return *(T*)(mem + idx);   }

template T get(unsigned int base, unsigned int off)   {   return get(base + off);   }

template void set(unsigned int idx, T& t)   {   *(T*)(mem + idx) = t;   } }; `It's easy to see how C++ grew out of Simula. There's very little difference here between a simulation and the real thing. This could be part of a primitive memory manager if you enhanced it a little. It grabs a piece of memory, and then treats it as though it were a T. I just used the get and set methods to allow me to easily manipulate C++ data types from a test harness. I can only think of two ways to do this in C#. First was the MemoryStream class, that would allow you to serialize your objects into and out of memory, and the other would be the BitConverter class. BitConverter would be more efficient, but only supports primitive types. A serialized class is not much use at runtime, since you would have to deserialize it to use it.

I like this because it illustrates how a strongly typed language can be a hindrance. Last time I posted an entry criticising C# for lacking the power of C++, I got back some very intriguing responses that showed that with sufficient ingenuity, you can get around most hurdles in a language. So this time, I’m wondering how we could overcome this strong typing constraint. I know I’m a hypocrite for eulogising about strong typing in one post, and then criticising it in the very next. I guess I just want the power to not be bound by it, if I know what I am doing.

This must be an issue for C# communications libraries where they need to efficiently convert a byte stream into an object. Since all objects and classes are ultimately composed of primitives, I have to assume that recursive application of the BitConverter class is enough to impose shape on the data stream - but you would have to assign an object on a heap to store the data, so you can’t do what is done above.

How would you do this in C#?