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How to plug your own C# compiler into VS 2005.

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Jomo Fisher--A bunch of future C# compiler features (think 3.0 and beyond) will be on display at PDC in a couple of weeks. We wanted to ship a nice installation that lets people try out the new features of the compiler while still leaving VS 2005 working for regular 2005 C# projects. MSBuild made this insanely easy.

 

I wasn't going to post the technical details because, really, how many people need to plug in a replacement for the C# compiler? Well, this guy does: https://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=107239#107239. So I think I'll talk about it a little bit in case other people are interested.

 

Here are the steps to replace the C# compiler for a single project. This assumes the your compiler is called CSC.EXE and is switch-compatible with CSC.EXE from VS 2005.

 

(1) Create a plain old C# project.

(2) Edit the .CSPROJ file with notepad and replace the <Import ...> line with

<Import Project="c:\MySubfolder\MyTargets.targets" />

(3) Create "c:\MySubfolder\MyTargets.targets" and put this in there:

 <Project

  DefaultTargets="Build"

  xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <PropertyGroup>

    <CscToolPath>c:\MySubfolder\</CscToolPath>

    <UseHostCompilerIfAvailable>false</UseHostCompilerIfAvailable>

  </PropertyGroup>

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

 </Project>

(4) Save everything.

(5) Put your replacement CSC.EXE in c:\MySubfolder

That's it. You can load up your project and build with your own compiler. One big caveat is that you'll still get the regular C# 2.0 IntelliSense(tm) when editing in VS.

 

Make it into a Project Template

Once you have the project building. You can make it into a project template by going to File\Export Template... in VS 2005.

 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2005
    I understand this is the technique for changing the location of the C# compiler used to build the project. Where can we find a description of the technique for plugging in a new language entirely (with custom IntelliSense, custom compiler, potentially custom build steps, etc)?
  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2005
    I remember looking at this a month ago, and I remember wishing there was some good end-to-end how-to on the matter.