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C# and Header Files Messages   Related Types This message was discovered on microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.interop. Responses highlighted in red are from those people who are likely to be able to contribute good, authoratitive information to this discussion. They include Microsoft employees, MVP's and others who IMHO contribute well to these kinds of discussions. Post a new message to this list... Jeff Hello, I would like to give a C# application access to constants defined in C/C++ header files. These constants are in header files and look like: #define MAX_LEVEL 1000. These constants are used by many other applications, and I do not want to redefine them in my C# code. I think a managed c++ wrapper is probably the way to go. Can anyone point me to some code snips and/or articles that would get me started? Thanks, Jeff Reply to this message...        Robert Jordan Jeff wrote: [Original message clipped] A managed C++ wrapper won't help you very much, because C/C++ #defines are just preprocessor macros. You have to write some wrapper code that redeclares the defines as consts. (syntax not checked at all!) class foo { public: const int MaxLevel = MAX_LEVEL; .... } I'd rather write a script that converts the #defines into C#-Code. bye Rob Reply to this message...        Jeff Rob, Good point about the preprocessor issue. I don't mind redefining them as const. This will still meet my objective. However, I'm not sure how to handle the marshalling etc. The script idea is a good one, but I don't think it will work well for me. Thanks for your help, Jeff Reply to this message...        Peter Huang (VIP) Hi Jeff, What do you mean the marshal issue? I think what we need to do is just as copy the C++ header definition and paste into a C# .cs file and then do the replace job to make it an valid c# code file. Best regards, Peter Huang Microsoft Online Partner Support Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Reply to this message...        Jeff Hi Peter, Thanks for your response. This approach will not work for me because the header files are used by many other software products/builds. Therefore, I need the constants & structs etc. to be pulled automatically. Thanks, Jeff Reply to this message...        Peter Huang (VIP) Hi Jeff, In C# project, we can define the Prebuild event, iin the event, we can run an command line to do the preprocess of converting the c++ header to c# header. Build Events, Common Properties, <Projectname> Property Pages Dialog Box http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cscon/html/ vcurfcustombuildeventscommonpropertiesprojectnamepropertypagesdialogbox.asp Best regards, Peter Huang Microsoft Online Partner Support Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Reply to this message...        Jeff Hi Peter, Using Managed C++ to reference constants in pre-existing header files seems to work well for me. I simply #include the header file that has the #define constants, and then redefine like: static const int MAX_VALUE = LEGACY_MAX_VALUE; Thanks, Jeff Reply to this message...        Peter Huang (VIP) Hi Jeff, Thank you for your input. Yes, managed C++ supported header file preprocess. You will find that the vc.net will use the cl.exe as the compiler which can be consider as the extended version of the cl.exe of former vc++ compiler. So it can support the header file preprocess, while c# use another different compiler csc.exe which can not handle the c++ header file. If you still have any concern please feel free to post here. Best regards, Peter Huang Microsoft Online Partner Support Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Reply to this message...        Jeff Peter, Thanks for all of your help. Jeff Reply to this message...     Ad MBR BootFX Best-of-breed application framework for .NET projects, developed by Matthew Baxter-Reynolds and MBR IT

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