推荐一篇介绍.NET MetaData的文章

文章地址(pdf文件): http://www.develop.com/conferences/conferencedotnet/materials/N4.pdf<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

文章目录:

1.         What Is Metadata?

2.         Metadata Object Overview

3.         The Reflection API

4.         The Unmanaged API

5.         Type Signatures & Tokens

6.         Tools And Demo

7.         Wrap-up And Resources

文章内容摘录:

Metadata Usage In .NET

Ø         The .NET runtime relies heavily on metadata to link together calls and data references at runtime

Ø         Metadata is stored in a binary format, and subject to change

Ø         Microsoft provides .NET classes and classic COM interfaces to read and write metadata

 

The Advantage Of Metadata

Ø         A shared standard of representing information between any .NET compatible language

n         Cool benefit: Intellisense for any .NET component

Ø         Metadata is automatically generated and consumed by .NET compilers

n         No need to create .IDL files to expose your code to others

n         No need to mess around with .H files and import libraries

 

Emitting Metadata

Ø       Metadata (and associated IL) can be created using the .NET runtime

n         Compilers aren’t the only ones that get to play!

Ø       System.Reflection.Emit classes are the basis for dynamically creating code:

n         AssemblyBuilder

n         MethodBuilder

n         ILGenerator

n         Many more!

Ø Focus in this presentation is consuming metadata