How to run a F# script in the context of C# Application

Question

Is it easily possible to run a F# script from within (and in the context) of a C# Application (host).

With 'in the context' I mean the following should be true:

• no separate process for the execution of the script
• access from the F# script to the static content of host application (classes, properties, methods)

Basically I'm am looking for an API similar to this hypothetical API call

FSharpScriptRunner.RunInContext(string script);

Please help.

-Matthias

Answer 1

There is currently no such api, but you can pretty easily do something similar in a couple of steps:-

1) Use the F# CodeDom, (FSharp.Compiler.CodeDom.dll) available in the powerpack, to dynamically compile your script. The power pack contains apis to compile a single file and to allow you to add references to your current application, thus give the script access to the classes, properties, and methods of the host application.

2) At the end of the compilation stage you should have a dynamic assembly in memory. You can then use reflection to create a dynamic instance of an object from your script and execute it.

Answer 2

Why don't you just compile the F# code into an assembly then reference that from your C# app?