Code Generation in Microsoft .NET (Expert's Voice Books for Professionals by Professionals)

Code generation has the potential to revolutionize application development. Rather than handcrafting each piece of code, developers are increasingly turning to code generation based on templates and applications of business logic to automatically perform a variety of tasks. This book teaches the technical details of code generation in .NET through a coherent series of steps that will help you to incorporate code generation into your own development efforts.

Veteran author Kathleen Dollard teaches code generation as a scripted repeatable process using templates you control, so you're not tied to a particular framework or style. Because you can regenerate code at any time, you can incorporate changes, including database changes, throughout the life of your application. The templates are flexible and designed to work smoothly with the handcrafted code youll use to customize your application. The underlying fundamentals are explained along with three specific techniques: outputting code to a stream, using the Code DOM, and using XSLT-based code generation.

In addition to the text, the tools in the book (downloadable in both VB .NET and C#) include a mechanism to extract information from SQL Server; a tool for editing and running code-generation scripts; a simple, flexible ORM tool that relates your database structure to your runtime class model; and a set of templates you can use as the starting point for your adventures in code generation.

Generating repetitive sections of code frees you to focus on the features that make your application unique. Code generation will turbo-charge your development cycles by offering speed, reusability, agility, and consistency. Go forth and generate!

Kathleen Dollard has been involved in the computer industry for a long time. She started (she claims) by experimenting with programming in junior high. After graduate work, she worked with the computer group at Texaco Research writing Fortran and helped usher in the age of PCs doing Lotus 1-2-3 macros. After working with 4GLs and Clipper, Dollard became an independent consultant, ultimately moving to Visual Basic when it became clear that Computer Associates would not release the Windows version of Clipper. Dollard is well known for her participation over the last 15 years with online communities, including BBSs, Compuserve, Fawcette, DevX, and Microsoft public newsgroups. She has been recognized in some form for her online work since 1994, and she's been a Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional" since 1998. Dollard is also active in the real-world communities of user groups, most recently with the Denver Visual Studio User Group and the Northern Colorado .NET SIG startup. A well-known writer and speaker, she is currently doing pioneering work in code generation using .NET and XSLT.