Provided by: mono-csharp-shell_4.2.1.102+dfsg2-7ubuntu4_all bug

NAME

       csharp, gsharp - Interactive C# Shell

SYNOPSIS

       csharp [--attach PID] [-e EXPRESSION] [file1 [file2]] [options]

       gsharp [file1 [file2]]

DESCRIPTION

       The  csharp  is  an  interactive  C#  shell  that allows the user to enter and evaluate C#
       statements and expressions from the command line.   The regular mcs command  line  options
       can be used in this version of the compiler.

       The  gsharp  command is a GUI version of the C# interpreter that uses Gtk# and provides an
       area to attach  widgets  as  well.       This  version  can  be  attached  to  other  Gtk#
       applications  in a safe way as it injects itself into the main loop of a Gtk# application,
       avoiding any problems arising from the multi-threaded nature of injecting  itself  into  a
       target process.

       Files specified in the command line will be loaded and executed as scripts.

       Starting  with  Mono  2.10,  the  csharp command can be used as an interpreter executed by
       executables flagged with the Unix execute attribute.   To do this, make the first line  of
       your C# source code look like this:
       "#!/usr/bin/csharp"
       Console.WriteLine ("Hello, World");

OPTIONS

       The  commands accept all of the commands that are available to the mcs command, so you can
       reference assemblies, specify paths, language level and so on from the command line.    In
       addition, the following command line options are supported:

       --attach
              This is an advanced option and should only be used if you have a deep understanding
              of multi-threading.     This option is availble on the csharp  command  and  allows
              the compiler to be injected into other processes.  This is done by injecting the C#
              shell in a separate thread that runs  concurrently  with  your  application.   This
              means  that you must take special measures to avoid crashing the target application
              while using it.  For example, you might  have  to  take  the  proper  locks  before
              issuing  any  commands  that  might  affect  the  target  process state, or sending
              commands through a method dispatcher.

       -e EXPRESSION
              This will evaluate the specified C# EXPRESSION and exit

OPERATION

       Once you launch the csharp command, you will be greeted with the interactive prompt:

       $ csharp
       Mono C# Shell, type "help;" for help

       Enter statements below.
       csharp>

       A number of  namespaces  are  pre-defined  with  C#  these  include  System,  System.Linq,
       System.Collections  and  System.Collections.Generic.   Unlike  the  compiled  mode,  it is
       possible to add new using statements as you type code, for example:

       csharp> new XmlDocument ();
       <interactive>(1,6): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `XmlDocument' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?
       csharp> using System.Xml;
       csharp> new XmlDocument ();
       System.Xml.XmlDocument

       Every time a command is typed, the scope of that command is one of a  class  that  derives
       from  the  class  Mono.CSharp.InteractiveBase.    This  class  defines  a number of static
       properties and methods.   To display a  list  of  available  commands  access  the  `help'
       property:
       csharp> help;
       "Static methods:
         LoadPackage (pkg); - Loads the given Package (like -pkg:FILE)
         [...]
         ShowVars ();       - Shows defined local variables.
         ShowUsing ();      - Show active using decltions.
         help;
       "
       csharp>

       When  expressions  are  entered,  the  C#  shell  will display the result of executing the
       expression:

       csharp> Math.Sin (Math.PI/4);
       0.707106781186547
       csharp> 1+1;
       2
       csharp> "Hello, world".IndexOf (',');
       5

       The C# shell uses the ToString() method on the returned object to display the object, this
       sometimes  can  be  limiting since objects that do not override the ToString() method will
       get the default behavior from System.Object which is merely to display their type name:

       csharp> var a = new XmlDocument ();
       csharp> a;
       System.Xml.Document
       csharp> csharp> a.Name;
       "#document"
       csharp>

       A  few  datatypes  are  handled  specially  by  the  C#  interactive  shell  like  arrays,
       System.Collections.Hashtable,  objects  that  implement System.Collections.IEnumerable and
       IDictionary and are rendered specially instead of just using ToString ():

       csharp> var pages = new Hashtable () {
             >  { "Mono",    "http://www.mono-project.com/" },
             >  { "Linux",   "http://kernel.org" } };
       csharp> pages;
       {{ "Mono", "http://www.mono-project.com/" }, { "Linux", "http://kernel.org" }}

       It is possible to use LINQ directly in the C#  interactive  shell  since  the  System.Linq
       namespace  has  been  imported  at  startup.   The following sample gets a list of all the
       files that have not been accessed in a week from /tmp:

       csharp> using System.IO;
       csharp> var last_week = DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromDays (7);
       csharp> var old_files = from f in Directory.GetFiles ("/tmp")
             >   let fi = new FileInfo (f)
             >   where fi.LastAccessTime < LastWeek select f;
       csharp>

       You can of course print the results in a single statement as well:

       csharp> using System.IO;
       csharp> var last_week = DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromDays (7);
       csharp> from f in Directory.GetFiles ("/tmp")
             >   let fi = new FileInfo (f)
             >   where fi.LastAccessTime < last_week select f;
       [...]
       csharp>

       LINQ and its functional foundation produce on-demand code for IEnumerable  return  values.
       For  instance, the return value from a using `from' is an IEnumerable that is evaluated on
       demand.   The automatic rendering of IEnumerables on the command  line  will  trigger  the
       IEnumerable  pipeline  to  execute  at  that point instead of having its execution delayed
       until a later point.

       If you want to avoid having the IEnumerable rendered at  this  point,  simply  assign  the
       value to a variable.

       Unlike compiled C#, the type of a variable can be changed if a new declaration is entered,
       for example:

       csharp> var a = 1;
       csharp> a.GetType ();
       System.Int32
       csharp> var a = "Hello";
       csharp> a.GetType ();
       System.String
       csharp> ShowVars ();
       string a = "Hello"

       In the case that an expression or a statement  is  not  completed  in  a  single  line,  a
       continuation prompt is displayed, for example:

       csharp> var protocols = new string [] {
             >    "ftp",
             >    "http",
             >    "gopher"
             > };
       csharp> protocols;
       { "ftp", "http", "gopher" }

       Long running computations can be interrupted by using the Control-C sequence:

       csharp> var done = false;
       csharp> while (!done) { }
       Interrupted!
       System.Threading.ThreadAbortException: Thread was being aborted
         at Class1.Host (System.Object& $retval) [0x00000]
         at Mono.CSharp.InteractiveShell.ExecuteBlock (Mono.CSharp.Class host, Mono.CSharp.Undo undo) [0x00000]
       csharp>

INTERACTIVE EDITING

       The C# interactive shell contains a line-editor that provides a more advanced command line
       editing functionality than the operating system provides.   These  are  available  in  the
       command line version, the GUI versions uses the standard Gtk# key bindings.

       The  command set is similar to many other applications (cursor keys) and incorporates some
       of the Emacs commands for editing as well as a history mechanism to

       The following keyboard input is supported:

       Home Key, Control-a
              Goes to the beginning of the line.

       End Key, Control-e
              Goes to the end of the line.

       Left Arrow Key, Control-b
              Moves the cursor back one character.

       Right Arrow Key, Control-f
              Moves the cursor forward one character.

       Up Arrow Key, Control-p
              Goes back in the history, replaces the current line with the previous line  in  the
              history.

       Down Arrow Key, Control-n
              Moves  forward  in the history, replaces the current line with the next lien in the
              history.

       Return Executes the current line if the statement or expression is complete, or waits  for
              further input.

       Control-C
              Cancel  the  current  line  being edited.  This will kill any currently in-progress
              edits or partial editing and go back to a toplevel definition.

       Backspace Key
              Deletes the character before the cursor

       Delete Key, Control-d
              Deletes the character at the current cursor position.

       Control-k
              Erases the contents of the line until the end of the line and places the result  in
              the cut and paste buffer.

       Alt-D  Deletes the word starting at the cursor position and appends into the cut and paste
              buffer.    By pressing Alt-d repeatedly, multiple words can be  appended  into  the
              paste buffer.

       Control-Y
              Pastes the content of the kill buffer at the current cursor position.

       Control-Q
              This  is the quote character.   It allows the user to enter control-characters that
              are otherwise taken by the command editing facility.   Press Control-Q followed  by
              the character you want to insert, and it will be inserted verbatim into the command
              line.

       Control-D
              Terminates the program.   This terminates the input for the program.

STATIC PROPERTIES AND METHODS

       Since the methods and  properties  of  the  base  class  from  where  the  statements  and
       expressions  are executed are static, they can be invoked directly from the shell.   These
       are the available properties and methods:

       void LoadAssembly(string assembly)
              Loads the given assembly.   This is equivalent to passing the compiler the -r: flag
              with the specified string.

       void LoadPackage(string package)
              Imports  the  package specified.   This is equivalent to invoking the compiler with
              the -pkg: flag with the specified string.

       string Prompt { get; set }
              The prompt used by the shell.   It  defaults  to  the  value  "csharp>  ".   string
              ContinuationPrompt { get; set; } The prompt used by the shell when further input is
              required to complete the expression or statement.

       void ShowVars()
              Displays all the variables that have been defined so far and their types.    In the
              csharp  shell  declaring  new variables will shadow previous variable declarations,
              this is different than C# when compiled.  void ShowUsing() Displays all  the  using
              statements in effect.  TimeSpan Time (Action a) Handy routine to time the time that
              some code takes to execute.   The parameter is an Action delegate, and  the  return
              value is a TimeSpan.  For example:

       csharp> Time (() => { for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) Console.WriteLine (i);});
       0
       1
       2
       3
       4
       00:00:00.0043230
       csharp>

       The  return  value  is  a  TimeSpan,  that  you  can  store in a variable for benchmarking
       purposes.

GUI METHODS AND PROPERTIES

       In addition to the methods and properties available in the console  version  there  are  a
       handful  of extra properties available on the GUI version.   For example a "PaneContainer"
       Gtk.Container is exposed that you can use to host Gtk# widgets while  prototyping  or  the
       "MainWindow" property that gives you access to the current toplevel window.

STARTUP FILES

       The  C#  shell  will  load  all  the  Mono  assemblies  and C# script files located in the
       ~/.config/csharp directory on Unix.  The assemblies are loaded before the source files are
       loaded.

       C#  script  files  are  files  that  have  the  extension .cs and they should only contain
       statements and expressions, they can not contain full class definitions (at least  not  as
       of  Mono  2.0).   Full  class  definitions should be compiled into dlls and stored in that
       directory.

AUTHORS

       The Mono C# Compiler was written by Miguel de Icaza, Ravi  Pratap,  Martin  Baulig,  Marek
       Safar and Raja Harinath.  The development was funded by Ximian, Novell and Marek Safar.

LICENSE

       The Mono Compiler Suite is released under the terms of the GNU GPL or the MIT X11.  Please
       read the accompanying `COPYING' file for details.  Alternative licensing for the  compiler
       is available from Novell.

SEE ALSO

       gmcs(1), mcs(1), mdb(1), mono(1), pkg-config(1)

BUGS

       To  report  bugs  in  the  compiler,  you  must  file them on our bug tracking system, at:
       http://www.mono-project.com/community/bugs/

MAILING LIST

       The Mono Mailing lists are listed  at  http://www.mono-project.com/community/help/mailing-
       lists/

MORE INFORMATION

       The  Mono  C#  compiler  was developed by Novell, Inc (http://www.novell.com, http) and is
       based     on     the     ECMA     C#      language      standard      available      here:
       http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-334.htm

       The  home  page  for  the  Mono  C# compiler is at http://www.mono-project.com/docs/about-
       mono/languages/csharp/ information about the interactive  mode  for  C#  is  available  in
       http://mono-project.com/docs/tools+libraries/tools/repl/

                                         4 September 2008                               csharp(1)