C#•4w ago

C# 5+ compiler

Hey! I was trying to compile a little program using csc myfile.cs. It didn't compile because I have some language features that are only available in more recent versions and as mentioned by the csc command:

csc myfile.cs
Microsoft (R) Visual C# Compiler version 4.8.9232.0
for C# 5
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This compiler is provided as part of the Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, but only supports language versions up to C# 5, which is no longer the latest version. For compilers that support newer versions of the C# programming language, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533240

csc myfile.cs
Microsoft (R) Visual C# Compiler version 4.8.9232.0
for C# 5
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This compiler is provided as part of the Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, but only supports language versions up to C# 5, which is no longer the latest version. For compilers that support newer versions of the C# programming language, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533240

I've looked at the provided link and the only think I can find is the latest .NET 6.0.1 SDK on the releases page, which I assume is not what I need. Can someone help me out? I'm quite new to C#. Ideally, I don't want to make a project just to run a program, because I'm attempting to compile the C# files programmatically, which is why the csc command was pretty handy! 🙂

42 Replies

333fred•4w ago

I was trying to compile a little program using csc myfile.cs

Don't If you want to compile C# files programmatically, use the roslyn API directly Don't use csc See the example in $bar

MODiX•4w ago

To create in-memory Roslyn compilations, use https://github.com/jaredpar/basic-reference-assemblies to set up your framework references. You'll get it wrong if you try to do it manually!

Jimmacle•4w ago

when you say C# 5 do you mean the language version or .NET version?

333fred•4w ago

They mean the language version

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

language, yes

333fred•4w ago

The native compiler only supports up to C# 5 We switched to roslyn with VS 2015/C# 6

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

Essentially what I'm doing is running a python script that, details irrelevant, puts together a c# file and then compiles it and runs it but I hit a wall because some of the generated files are in a later version than C# 5

333fred•4w ago

You don't have a good option other than creating a project file right now A dotnet build passes nearly 200 arguments to csc For a hello world We are working on a dotnet run file.cs experience, but it's very much in the planning stages right now Not something you can consume

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

do I need a project for each file I want to compile?

333fred•4w ago

Are they separate projects?

Jimmacle•4w ago

would it make more sense to have a C# program that uses roslyn and lets you feed it source to compile and run?

333fred•4w ago

That is also a fair question

Unknown User•4w ago

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MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

they are different files, not interconnected to each other and all define the same Problem class

333fred•4w ago

The example in the link above is not a lot of lines of code Files in C# doesn't really mean much Are you writing some sort of automated grading script?

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

I have no clue how C# works tbh, I only really work with scripting languages I can just hit "run" and it runs yeah kinda

Unknown User•4w ago

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MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

the idea is the same

333fred•4w ago

My suggestion is to just bite the bullet and use C# It'll likely be the easiest approach

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

there's one

message.txt

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

they all have the same structure, only the first method and whatever is inside main changes I'm not sure if I can, it's very machine learning dependent, python should be way better suited

333fred•4w ago

You absolutely can use C# Even if it's just to write a simple program to run these for you

Unknown User•4w ago

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MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

I can explain that to you, but I need to do something for the next 15mins. I assume it's okay if I just leave and come back

Unknown User•4w ago

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jcotton42•4w ago

The grader script needs ML? If it's a grader script, it's probably running submissions from multiple students en masse.

Jimmacle•4w ago

if it was me and i really wanted to use python for the majority of it, i'd write a separate C# tool to compile and run the submissions and invoke that from python even that might be overkill if you can just create one csproj to use with all the different files

Unknown User•4w ago

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333fred•4w ago

That's what Jimmacle suggested above, and I agreed

Unknown User•4w ago

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MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

Basically, what's going on is the following: I have around 150 C# "problems" that I'm sending to a coding model one by one. Each problem follows this structure:

using System;
using System.Numerics;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
class Problem
{
    // Check if in given list of numbers, are any two numbers closer to each other than
    // given threshold.
    // >>> HasCloseElements((new List<float>(new float[]{(float)1.0f, (float)2.0f, (float)3.0f})), (0.5f))
    // (false)
    // >>> HasCloseElements((new List<float>(new float[]{(float)1.0f, (float)2.8f, (float)3.0f, (float)4.0f, (float)5.0f, (float)2.0f})), (0.3f))
    // (true)
    public static bool HasCloseElements(List<float> numbers, float threshold)
    {
        // Your code here
    }

    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Tests will go here
    }

}

using System;
using System.Numerics;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
class Problem
{
    // Check if in given list of numbers, are any two numbers closer to each other than
    // given threshold.
    // >>> HasCloseElements((new List<float>(new float[]{(float)1.0f, (float)2.0f, (float)3.0f})), (0.5f))
    // (false)
    // >>> HasCloseElements((new List<float>(new float[]{(float)1.0f, (float)2.8f, (float)3.0f, (float)4.0f, (float)5.0f, (float)2.0f})), (0.3f))
    // (true)
    public static bool HasCloseElements(List<float> numbers, float threshold)
    {
        // Your code here
    }

    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Tests will go here
    }

}

where // Your code here is replaced by the model's response and // Tests will go here is replaced by a set of predefined tests. I then place this on a .cs file, after which I want to programmatically compile the .cs file which I was doing it by invoking csc using a subprocess. I check if the compiler threw an error and if not I just run the resulting .exe file and check if the tests passed. I hit a wall because some of the responses I'm getting use features from a language version later than C# 5, which csc does not support. I was hoping there was another plug-in option I could use, something as simple as installing a different compiler and calling a command akin to csc myfile.cs but as you've all told me, there isn't. That's why it feels like it was written as if C# was a scripting language because it was The general idea is to see if code tuned LLMs can "autocomplete" small C# snippets, kinda like copilot does, but I need to be able to test it, which is why it has this weird format I guess I should probably do that, yeah

333fred•4w ago

fwiw, C# also has support for this type of thing as well

333fred•4w ago

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/ai/get-started/dotnet-ai-overview

Develop .NET applications with AI features - .NET

Learn how you can build .NET applications that include AI features.

333fred•4w ago

And plenty of SDKs for things like anthropic or chatgpt https://www.nuget.org/packages/Anthropic.SDK, for example

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

my problem with switching to C# is that I'm not nearly as efficient on it as I'm with python I'm using Ollama but there's a C# API too I'm assuming there's a way I can maybe have a little tool that compiles the C# files and executes them and call that tool in python?

333fred•4w ago

Yes, see the original thing I linked you

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

this one?

333fred•4w ago

Yes

MoscaCarecaOP•4w ago

ok I will, I'll get back to you if I have any issues tyvm

canton7•4w ago

I saw a tool to do just this! Let me try and find it...

canton7•4w ago

Ah, it wasn't quite this: https://github.com/devlooped/SmallSharp

GitHub

GitHub - devlooped/SmallSharp: Create, edit and run multiple C# top...

Create, edit and run multiple C# top-level programs in the same project by just selecting the startup program from the start button. - devlooped/SmallSharp

Decrypted•3w ago

https://github.com/pythonnet/pythonnet might this be of any use? Used this in one project to call python scripts from C# but should be able to do the reverse. Could use this to import C# assemblies to compile the .cs file?

GitHub

GitHub - pythonnet/pythonnet: Python for .NET is a package that giv...

Python for .NET is a package that gives Python programmers nearly seamless integration with the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) and provides a powerful application scripting tool for .NET develo...

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C# 5+ compiler

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