Will the IE10 Chakra JScript engine available as stand alone accessible from C#?

Question

Microsoft may (actually I think it will) in the future release the IE10 Chakra (JScript engine) as a stand alone module, like google V8 JavaScript Engine.

• The question is: will the engine accessible from C# like IronPython is?

Answer 1

The Chakra engine for Javascript is available to C# programs, through the IActiveScript interface. This is not the same as the IronPython model - JS invoked this way through Chakra is not compiled to MSIL, is not .NET logic. It does not run on the CLR/DLR. It runs in its own engine.

// Initialize Chakra (requires IE9 to be installed)
var guid = new System.Guid("{16d51579-a30b-4c8b-a276-0ff4dc41e755}");
Type t = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(guid, true);
// you must have a p/invoke defn for IActiveScript
var engine = Activator.CreateInstance(t) as IActiveScript;

var site = new ScriptSite(); // this is a custom class
engine.SetScriptSite(site);

var parse32 = engine as IActiveScriptParse32;
parse32.InitNew();

// parse a script
engine.SetScriptState(ScriptState.Connected);
parse32.ParseScriptText(scriptText, null, null, null, IntPtr.Zero, 0, flags, out result, out exceptionInfo);

IntPtr comObject;
engine.GetScriptDispatch(null, out comObject);

// iDispatch is a COM IDispatch  that you can use to invoke script functions. 
var iDispatch = Marshal.GetObjectForIUnknown(comObject);

iDispatch.GetType().InvokeMember(methodName, BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, iDispatch, arguments);

Here's a winforms test app written in C# that runs Chakra through this interface:

You can download it from here. (look for the ScriptHost.zip file)

more information:
What is the ProgId or CLSID for IE9's Javascript engine (code-named "Chakra")