ProductivityExtensionMethods 1.0.0-beta.4

Currently only for C# language.

How to use

After Referencing the package, it should create a T4 Template file in your project that will generate a C# .cs file. Modify top section of the file to enable certain category of extension methods.

How is it different from other Extension Method DLLs?

This is NOT a DLL assembly!

DLLs are not good, because:

• A DLL that only contains extension methods, in essence a series of so-called "utility" or "helper" functions, is not a good design approach. It's just ugly, and I'm sure I don't need to explain more.
• It is an extra totally unnecessary addition to the deployment, especially if you need to deal with strong names and/or signing the assembly. This is especially not justified when you did not use the extension methods extensively.
• Referencing such DLL adds in hundreds of extension methods that pollute your IntelliSense. No way to choose only what you need on a project-level basis.
• You need to add a reference in all your projects in the solution to have it available everywhere. Bad practice, on so many levels.
• You may need to add an extra using statement in ALL your code files to make them available everywhere.

How ProductivityExtensionMethods tackles the problem?

• Referencing nuget package only adds one T4 Template file to your project.
• The T4 template generates a C# code file (.cs) in that project. It is a single partial static class, under the default namespace of the assembly.
• You add the nuget package to the project that is referenced by all your other projects. The methods are now available everywhere!
• The top section of the T4 template file has a configuration that you can use to switch on only the set of the methods that you need.
• When new version of this package arrives, you just update the package. It automatically takes care of porting your configuration to the new version.
• It automatically picks up whether or not nullable reference types are enabled in your project and uses that feature as necessary.

Important Notes

• The generated class is in C#, so it only works in C# projects.
• The C# code contains C#8 syntax for some categories.
• This package is only tested for .net standard project in Visual Studio 16.3 though the implementation should work on other project types as well.

Known Issues

• The nullable reference type does not get automatically disabled for IsAClosedTypeOf and TryMakeGenericType methods. This will be fixed in next release. To bypass, modify the T4 template file and remove the question marks if your project doesn't compile.
• If you reference the package but don't see any items added to your project, make sure the project was saved in the first place. This is a bug that will be fixed in a future versions.
• If you removed the package for any reason, and immediately added the package again, no file will be added to the project. This is a bug in Visual Studio/Nuget that when you remove and immediately add again, the initialization script for the nuget package is not called. (Observed in Visual Studio 2019 16.3)