Thread: C# to C++ conversion?

There are code converters. But they don't work, of course. So that pretty much covers your question which was "I am wondering if there exist any good tool for conversion from C# to C++". No, there isn't.

Ideally what you want is to simply refer to your C# code from within C++ through a Managed C++ interface, just as VirtualAce describes. It's an elegant, powerful and sureshot solution for most of your integration problems. This short tutorial gets you started.

If you really want to port your C# code into C++, then you'll have to do it by hand.

Originally Posted by hammari

Thank you all! My problem is a specific one. We are developing a new embedded system using tools that only support C/C++ for the moment (research project). I have found a tool from Tangible Software Solutions Inc that claims to do the conversion from C# to C++, but it still needs a lot of manual postprocessing. This is of course an interesting task to learn C# better, but the time is very limited for our first experiment. I will look at the interface that you suggest.

Yes, that's the problem with those tools. They only partially deal with the porting and on the other hand the generated code may not be what you expect and break many of your programming guidelines or habits. You'll feel forced to change also the generated code, which in the ends results in more work than simply porting by hand. If this is fine by you and you don't care about the C++ generated code (doesn't shock me at all, depending on the type of research you are doing), then they do make useful shortcuts indeed.

In any case, since you mention that your system doesn't support .Net development, don't bother looking at our proposed solution. It only makes sense if the system includes support for .Net since the assembly for which you create the interface isn't going anywhere. It will be required for C++ to be able to communicate with it.

Originally Posted by VirtualAce

.NET is supported on Windows XPE and Windows Embedded Standard if you are using those on your embedded system. Last I heard .NET 3.5 and 4.0 were awaiting official embedded 'certification' by Microsoft but it was expected these could be both used and supported in embedded environments within the next few months. .NET 3.5 may already have been certified.

Yes but .NET at least tripled my XPe size (from ~80Mb to over 300Mb), which is expensive when using industrial grade SD or ruggedised HDs and the garbage collector was not really good/quick enough on a system using the EWF.