How to Work with C++ Managed Extensions from Silverlight

If you would want to add a C++ project to your Silverlight Solution, could that be done? Yes, it can. This article about using C++ with WPF opens the door. However, advantages that hold for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) do not hold for Silverlight. The conclusion of this article here will be that there is little to no gains to be expected. This article reports on finished research, and is actually a step-up to its successor about Pinvoke. But do read on to see what one can do and what one cannot do with C++ in the context of Silverlight.

A Direct and Simple Path from Silverlight to Native Code

Why on earth would you want to use C++ with Silverlight? Well, actually, for various reasons. The driver behind the research is that I sometimes need top performance code, and also would like to use software resources that are already present on a client computer.

What I would like to do is to add a native code dll to my Silverlight App. The Silverlight App will probably run out-of-browser on the client with elevated trust. The merit of Silverlight in this scenario is its software distribution and update facilities, and the fact that is delivers premium user interfaces, easy multi media and connectedness – all in an effective, that is, a well-organized and relatively compact framework. The native code dll will be downloaded along with the Silverlight App as a resource. After loading it into memory, we use its functionality.

C++ is known for its performance, small footprint programs and, recently, its practical parallelism. Managed extension of C++ allow you to interact with .Net from C++. It is also possible to build assemblies that contain both native and managed parts. So, the hope is that there can be a direct and simple line from a Silverlight application to C++ native code. Developing software, as opposed to using Pinvoke and COM black boxes, is a lot more transparent, more direct, and hence simpler. It probably also results in faster software since Marshalling is not such a big issue if the conversion or memory management problem is right there before your eyes.

The above scenario will be reality in Windows 8 (if that will be its name), where the WinRT layer will take the role of the CLR (in this scenario). But for Windows 7 it is not. Indeed, you can write a managed C++ class that if compiled with the /clr:safe compiler option, can be loaded and executed from a Silverlight class. However, the /clr:safe option precludes the use of unverifiable code. See the MSDN library articles on Pure and Verifiable code. There seems to be a loophole in the seclusion of the ‘verifiability’ of the C++ class, but a loophole is not a sound basis for software engineering practices (or maintainable software).

SlimDX and SharpDX

Among others, SlimDX uses the above described path to connect the DirectX11 and .Net worlds. This works in the context of general .Net software. SlimDX is therefore not an easy available alternative for XNA in Silverlight. One might be on the look-out for an alternative since the XNA subset in Silverlight 5 is restricted, and XNA is based on DirectX9, which is increasingly seen as becoming outdated by now. See e.g. this blog post by Aaron.

Pinvoke

The MSDN library states at multiple points that PInvoke is the alternative in case you want to interact with unverifiable code.