What can you do in MSIL that you cannot do in C# or VB.NET? [closed]

Question

MSIL allows for overloads which differ only in return types because of

call void [mscorlib]System.Console::Write(string)

or

callvirt int32 ...

Most .Net languages including C# and VB do not use the tail recursion feature of MSIL code.

Tail recursion is an optimization that is common in functional languages. It occurs when a method A ends by returning the value of method B such that method A's stack can be deallocated once the call to method B is made.

MSIL code supports tail recursion explicitly, and for some algorithms this could be a important optimization to make. But since C# and VB do not generate the instructions to do this, it must be done manually (or using F# or some other language).

Here is an example of how tail-recursion may be implemented manually in C#:

private static int RecursiveMethod(int myParameter)
{
    // Body of recursive method
    if (BaseCase(details))
        return result;
    // ...

    return RecursiveMethod(modifiedParameter);
}

// Is transformed into:

private static int RecursiveMethod(int myParameter)
{
    while (true)
    {
        // Body of recursive method
        if (BaseCase(details))
            return result;
        // ...

        myParameter = modifiedParameter;
    }
}

It is common practice to remove recursion by moving the local data from the hardware stack onto a heap-allocated stack data structure. In the tail-call recursion elimination as shown above, the stack is eliminated completely, which is a pretty good optimization. Also, the return value does not have to walk up a long call-chain, but it is returned directly.

But, anyway, the CIL provides this feature as part of the language, but with C# or VB it has to be implemented manually. (The jitter is also free to make this optimization on its own, but that is a whole other issue.)

In MSIL, you can have a class which cannot inherit from System.Object.

Sample code: compile it with ilasm.exe UPDATE: You must use "/NOAUTOINHERIT" to prevent assembler from auto inheriting.

// Metadata version: v2.0.50215
.assembly extern mscorlib
{
  .publickeytoken = (B7 7A 5C 56 19 34 E0 89 )                         // .z\V.4..
  .ver 2:0:0:0
}
.assembly sample
{
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilationRelaxationsAttribute::.ctor(int32) = ( 01 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .hash algorithm 0x00008004
  .ver 0:0:0:0
}
.module sample.exe
// MVID: {A224F460-A049-4A03-9E71-80A36DBBBCD3}
.imagebase 0x00400000
.file alignment 0x00000200
.stackreserve 0x00100000
.subsystem 0x0003       // WINDOWS_CUI
.corflags 0x00000001    //  ILONLY
// Image base: 0x02F20000


// =============== CLASS MEMBERS DECLARATION ===================

.class public auto ansi beforefieldinit Hello
{
  .method public hidebysig static void  Main(string[] args) cil managed
  {
    .entrypoint
    // Code size       13 (0xd)
    .maxstack  8
    IL_0000:  nop
    IL_0001:  ldstr      "Hello World!"
    IL_0006:  call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)
    IL_000b:  nop
    IL_000c:  ret
  } // end of method Hello::Main
} // end of class Hello

It's possible to combine the protected and internal access modifiers. In C#, if you write protected internal a member is accessible from the assembly and from derived classes. Via MSIL you can get a member which is accessible from derived classes within the assembly only. (I think that could be pretty useful!)