These helpers are documented to return null when nothing matches, but
returned `null!`, hiding the very nullable warnings #nullable enable is
meant to surface: a miss handed back null typed as non-null and would
NRE downstream with no compile-time signal. Returning T? lets the
compiler enforce the guard at each call site (both existing callers
already null-check). GetVariable forwards the result, so it becomes
VariableInitializer? to match.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A single slot always occupies the same flattened index, so filling,
clearing, or replacing it moves no other child -- only the new child's own
index needs setting. The generated single-slot setters now pass that index
to SetChildNode (a compile-time constant when no collection precedes the
slot; SetChild forwards its argument), which assigns childIndex directly and
never invalidates -- mirroring the IL AST's SetChildInstruction(ref, value,
index). Previously a set-from-null could not know the index here and fell
back to invalidating, forcing a later O(children) EnsureChildIndices rebuild.
With the indices now kept current by construction, NextSibling/PrevSibling
inline the validity check and skip the (non-inlinable) EnsureChildIndices
call in the overwhelmingly common already-valid case.
Together these idle the renumber machinery on a System.Private.CoreLib
decompile: EnsureChildIndices calls 53.4M -> 1.6M, actual rebuilds
1.97M -> 183K, elements renumbered 3.40M -> 757K. Output is byte-identical
and the Pretty suite stays green with CheckInvariant validating the
directly-assigned indices after every transform.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Removing a collection element invalidated the parent's whole flattened
index set, so the next sibling navigation rebuilt it in O(children) -- and
that renumber, not the array shift, was the dominant cost: a reverse
(tail-first) removal, which shifts nothing, was still quadratic, isolating
EnsureChildIndices as the culprit.
When a node's only collection is also its last slot it owns the contiguous
range [base, base + Count) with nothing after it, so an element's flattened
index is just base + its local position (base is the slot's declaration
position, since the preceding slots are all single children). On that
fast-path -- which the generator now flags, passing the base index -- Add
indexes only the appended element, Insert/Remove renumber only the shifted
suffix, and IndexOf is base-relative O(1); none of them invalidate. Other
shapes (several collections, or a slot after the collection) keep the
invalidate-and-rebuild fallback. Tail and scattered removal, and removal
during traversal, no longer pay the per-operation renumber.
Microbenchmark, removing every element of an N-element block: tail-first at
N=32000 went 1493 ms -> 0.5 ms (now O(N)); front-first is ~1.6x faster and
no longer renumbers (its residual cost is the inherent array shift). Output
is byte-identical and the Pretty suite stays green with CheckInvariant
validating the maintained indices after every transform.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A node's children carry a cached flattened childIndex, rebuilt by
EnsureChildIndices after any structural mutation invalidates it. The
single-slot setter and the collection indexer invalidated the whole set on
every in-place replace, so the next sibling navigation (e.g. the visitor's
NextSibling walk) rebuilt all indices in O(children). A transform that
replaces each element of a block while traversing it was therefore O(N^2).
But replacing a child in place does not move anything: a single slot always
occupies the same flattened index, and a replaced collection element keeps
its position. So carry the old child's index to the new child and skip the
invalidation. Setting or clearing a slot still invalidates, since the new
child's index is not known locally; a stale carried value is corrected by
the next renumber anyway.
Microbenchmark (replace every statement in an N-statement block): at
N=32000, 2158 ms -> 1 ms. Output is byte-identical and the Pretty suite
stays green with CheckInvariant active.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
AstNodeCollection<T> created its List<T> eagerly in the constructor, and
the collection itself is created on first access of its slot property. So
every collection slot that is read but stays empty -- Attributes,
TypeArguments, type-parameter constraints and the like, which are absent on
the vast majority of nodes -- still allocated a List that never held an
element. Decompiling System.Private.CoreLib that was ~100 MB of short-lived
empty Lists churning gen0.
Make the list nullable and allocate it on first Add; an accessed-but-empty
collection now costs only the wrapper. The backing array was already lazy
(List defers it to the first add), so this drops the redundant List object
for the empty case. Output is byte-identical and the Pretty suite stays
green with CheckInvariant active.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The generated GetChildNodes materialized a List<AstNode> (plus a boxed
List.Enumerator at every foreach) for each node, so AstNode.Children and
the visitor's per-node child walk allocated three objects per traversal.
Decompiling System.Private.CoreLib that came to ~1.7 GB of extra garbage,
roughly +7% over the linked-list model the slot tree replaced. A yield
iterator removes the List but trades it for an equally costly per-node
state machine, so it is not enough on its own.
Enumerate children through a by-value struct enumerator over the existing
FirstChild/NextSibling primitives, capturing each child's successor before
it is yielded so a transform may still remove or replace the current child
mid-traversal. AstNodeCollection<T> gets the same struct treatment for a
direct foreach. Child enumeration now allocates nothing, bringing total
allocations back to the linked-list baseline at byte-identical output
(full Pretty suite green with CheckInvariant active).
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
InsertMissingTokensDecorator removes a pending node by value and uses whether it
was still present, so a HashSet keys that membership-removal on O(1); iteration
order is irrelevant because every pending node receives the same location. Rename
the field to nodesAwaitingStartLocation for clarity.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A contributor guide next to the node classes: the [DecompilerAstNode]/[Slot]/
[ExcludeFromMatch] attributes, the slot-and-kind model (per-node CSharpSlotInfo
vs the canonical Slots constants), scalars and generated constructors,
CheckInvariant, and a step-by-step for adding a node.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The slot kind is now the canonical typed CSharpSlotInfo<T> in Slots, matched by
object identity (the IL SlotInfo model), instead of a parallel SlotKind enum.
CSharpSlotInfo.Kind points at the canonical shared slot; a Slots constant is its
own kind (null Kind, never read -- only per-node slots are asked for their kind),
so there is no self-reference. Child access (GetChild/GetChildren/SetChild,
GetCollectionByKind, AddChild/InsertChild) and the polymorphic
node.Slot.Kind == Slots.X comparisons key on the canonical reference; the
generated SlotKind enum is removed. No behavior change.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A declaration's attribute collection (AstNodeCollection<AttributeSection>) and an
attribute section's own attributes (AstNodeCollection<Attribute>) both carried
[Slot("Attribute")], so the kind mapped to two child types and the shared
Slots.Attribute widened to AstNode. Give the declaration-level slot its own
"AttributeSection" kind so every kind maps to a single type; EntityDeclaration's
Attributes accessor now reads through the typed Slots.AttributeSection. This was
the last child-access keyed on the SlotKind matching enum.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The generator emits a Slots holder of typed CSharpSlotInfo<T> kind constants (T is
the child type, widened to AstNode for the few kinds reused with several child
types). Call sites whose kind maps to a single type switch from
GetChildByRole<T>(SlotKind.X) to GetChild(Slots.X), inferring the result type from
the slot. The ByRole methods and SlotKind remain for the multi-type Attribute
accessor and the internal add/insert plumbing, removed in following steps.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
GetChild/GetChildren/SetChild take a typed CSharpSlotInfo<T> and infer the child
type from the slot, delegating to the existing kind-based lookups. Call sites can
pass a node's static slot (e.g. node.GetChild(PropertyDeclaration.GetterSlot))
instead of an explicit type argument plus a SlotKind.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Add a generic CSharpSlotInfo<T> (T is the child type, the element type for a
collection) and have the generator emit each per-node slot field as the typed
variant. This lets the typed child accessors infer the result type from the slot,
so the explicit type argument can drop out of the SlotKind-based child API in the
following steps. No behavior change -- the typed slots are still consumed through
the non-generic CSharpSlotInfo base.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A DEBUG-only structural check, the analog of ILInstruction.CheckInvariant, run
after every AST transform in RunTransforms. It recursively asserts that each
required (non-optional) single slot holds a child, every child's Parent points
back, the stored flattened index matches the slot position, and the runtime type
fits the slot, so a transform that corrupts the tree fails at that transform
instead of as a downstream output diff. CSharpSlotInfo gains an IsOptional flag
(emitted by the generator) so the check can tell required from optional slots.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Completes the nullable migration for ICSharpCode.Decompiler/CSharp/Syntax: every
hand-written file now carries #nullable enable. The pattern-matching API
(INode/Pattern/PatternExtensions DoMatch/Match/IsMatch) takes a nullable 'other',
since matching legitimately compares a pattern against a missing child. Members
that genuinely return or accept null are annotated to match (AttributeSection's
target token, IAnnotatable.Annotation<T>, Statement/Expression.ReplaceWith,
SyntaxExtensions.GetNextStatement), and a latent null dereference in
Backreference.DoMatch is fixed.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A blank line as the first line inside a node class body (right after the opening brace) or the
last line before the closing brace, left over from the migration. Cosmetic only -- deletions of blank
lines at class boundaries; method bodies are untouched.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
From a generated-code review. InterpolatedStringExpression.Content carried a leftover
[Slot("Role")] from the old role system -- the only generic 'Role' kind among 141 generated files;
it becomes [Slot("Content")], which also drops 'Role' from the generated SlotKind enum (nothing
referenced it). The generator's internal NameSlots/NullOnEmpty identifiers were stale -- the [NameSlot]
attribute and nullOnEmpty flag they were named after no longer exist (optionality is inferred from the
nullable annotation) -- so they become NameAccessors/IsOptional, matching the optional/required wording
used elsewhere. The *AstType visit-method rename uses EndsWith instead of a Contains substring match.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The flags word existed to back per-node bit state, but its only user was Identifier.IsVerbatim,
and it was retained as the seed for a deferred flag-packing optimization. Measuring that optimization
showed it saves essentially nothing -- the CLR already packs a node's bools and narrow enums into the
object's existing alignment padding (ParameterDeclaration and BinaryOperatorExpression: 0 bytes saved
by hand-packing). So IsVerbatim becomes a plain bool (free, it lands in padding) and the flags field is
removed. Removing it shrinks every AstNode by 8 bytes -- the field occupied its own aligned slot rather
than pairing with childIndex as assumed (a minimal node measured 64 -> 56 bytes), a universal win across
the whole tree that the per-node packing never delivered.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The C# syntax tree's name accessors (ParameterDeclaration.Name, GotoStatement.Label,
catch variable, query continuations, ...) are convenience strings over a backing Identifier
token. Names that may be absent are now typed string? and read as null when absent, instead of
a non-null empty-string sentinel; required names stay non-null string. The backing token slot's
nullability follows, and an empty or null assignment clears the token (empty == absent).
Because the property type now carries optionality, the separate [NameSlot] attribute and its
nullOnEmpty flag are redundant: a [Slot] on a string property is a name (child slots are
AstNode-typed, so the type disambiguates), and the generator infers optionality from the
declared nullable annotation -- which a string? declaration already requires #nullable for. The
repeated empty-to-null setter body becomes Identifier.CreateIfNotEmpty. To make the annotation
readable, #nullable enable is turned on across the syntax node files (the directive the inferred
optionality depends on), with the attendant local nullability fixups. Consumers that feed a name
into a non-null slot assert it where the variable structurally has a name.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Enum-typed constructor parameters were emitted via SymbolDisplayFormat.FullyQualifiedFormat so
that an enum in another namespace resolves without a using. For enums declared in the same namespace
as the generated file (ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax) that produced a redundant
global::ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp.Syntax. prefix, e.g. 'global::...Syntax.ClassType classType'.
The prefix is now stripped for the file's own namespace while cross-namespace enums stay qualified.
The global:: on Identifier.Create in NameSlot setters is deliberately kept: those run in expression
position where a string property literally named 'Identifier' (e.g. SimpleType) would otherwise
shadow the type.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The generated 'public static implicit operator' line was emitted at two tabs, one more
than its own braces and the sibling PatternPlaceholder class, because the verbatim template
hardcoded the leading indentation. Emit it at one tab so the generated members align.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
GetChildByRole<T> returned default! while it can legitimately yield null (empty slot
or a kind the node does not declare); it now returns T?. Callers that already null-checked
are unchanged; the few that rely on a structural guarantee (name tokens, label identifier,
property accessors) now state it with an explicit !, and MethodDeclaration drops a redundant
cast that the lie required.
Also removes two members left dead by the Role removal: the AddAnnotation override that
only forwarded to the base, and GetCSharpNodeBefore, which ignored 'this' and had no callers.
On the output path, GetChildNodes() allocates a snapshot List per call; the read-only
.Children traversals that never mutate the tree now walk the live FirstChild/NextSibling chain
(O(n), allocation-free, since child indices are cached), an EmptyStatement child check uses
HasChildren, and the label-statement sibling scan breaks on the first match instead of walking
to the end of the block. The generated GetChildNodes snapshot is kept where traversal may mutate.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Two crash paths surfaced by the null-object -> nullable-reference migration of the
C# AST. A void 'return;' forced into lambda syntax NRE'd on
ReturnStatement.Expression.Detach() now that Expression is nullable; the body now
falls through to the block form, matching the existing guards in CallBuilder and
InferReturnType. Separately, the location-setting token decorator routed a parentless
print-only node (e.g. the detached name-token clone of a renamed constructor) into the
child setter as SlotKind.None, which throws since the Role hierarchy was removed; such
nodes have no slot and are now skipped. A regression test covers the decorator path.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The per-node .g.cs files are read during debugging and review, so the emitter
now shapes them the way a person would: fixed-slot nodes dispatch child access
through a switch, collection nodes through a readable running-index walk (no dead
trailing decrement), GetChildCount folds its constant terms, and the fully
qualified System.Collections.Generic names collapse behind a using. The visitor
interface and SlotKind enum gain the auto-generated header and #nullable, and all
three writers normalize newlines to LF.
No behavior change: the dispatch logic is identical; only formatting and the
unreachable final decrement differ.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Nodes use nullable reference types now, so the generated null-object
node and its hasNullNode / NeedsNullNode / NullNodeBaseCtorParamCount
plumbing are dead. Drop them and reword the affected comments.
Turn on #nullable enable across the AST consumer layer: the output visitor, the
IL-to-C# builders (statement, call and expression builders, CSharpDecompiler,
TypeSystemAstBuilder), the translation-result wrappers, the sequence-point and
required-namespace collectors, and the annotation helpers. Optional inputs,
fields and returns are typed nullable, detector out-parameters use
[NotNullWhen(true)], and structurally-guaranteed dereferences use the
null-forgiving operator. A few public parameters that already tolerate null are
widened to match their downstream callers. The annotations emit no IL, so the
Pretty suite stays byte-identical.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The 124 concrete node classes that are neither a base of another node nor a
host for a generated PatternPlaceholder subclass are now sealed, so the JIT can
devirtualize the slot dispatch (GetChild, GetChildCount, GetChildSlotInfo,
GetChildNodes, AcceptVisitor) when the static type is the sealed leaf. Identifier's
constructor becomes private (protected is meaningless and an error in a sealed
type). Abstract bases, base classes (PreProcessorDirective, the EntityDeclaration/
AstType/Statement/Expression hierarchy roots), and pattern-placeholder hosts stay
open.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
AstNode.Children and the visitors' VisitChildren walked children via
FirstChild/NextSibling, an O(slots) index rescan per step. The generator now
emits GetChildNodes, which materializes the children in slot order in one pass
(O(children)); Children and VisitChildren iterate that. The snapshot makes the
walk tolerant of the visitor removing or replacing the current child (the
mutation pattern the old capture-next loop supported) without re-feeding the
loop.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The [Slot] and [NameSlot] string argument only feeds SlotKind derivation, which
takes the last dotted segment and strips a trailing "Role", so the Roles.
qualifier and the Role suffix were dead decoration. Rewrite each to the bare
SlotKind it already produces, so the attribute reads as exactly the kind.
Collapse the runs of consecutive blank lines that removing the hand-written
constructors, fields and properties left between the remaining members.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The decompiler never emits "delegate () {}" (an explicit empty parameter
list) -- it produces "delegate {}" when there are no parameters and
"delegate (...) {}" when there are -- so HasParameterList always equalled
Parameters.Any(). Drop the property, its backing field and the two setter
calls, and read Parameters.Any() directly at the printer and the
resolve-result builder.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Scalar value properties that merely forwarded to a private backing field
(IsAsync, Operator and the operator-type enums, Format, ClassType, Variance,
ParameterModifier, the parameter bool flags, and similar) become
auto-properties, formatted on a single line. Behavior is identical;
PrimitiveExpression's constructor sets the property instead of the dropped
field.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Each concrete node's constructors are now emitted by the source generator
from its members in source order: single and collection [Slot] children,
the [NameSlot] string, and settable enum scalars (Operator, FieldDirection,
...). It emits the empty ctor (for object initializers), a required-prefix
ctor, one ending at each collection, and the full ctor, with later ctors
forwarding to shorter ones via this(...) and a params[] overload alongside
each IEnumerable<T> one. The hand-written ctors the generator now produces
are removed; scalar/location/Identifier convenience overloads that it cannot
express are kept (e.g. AssignmentExpression(left, right), SimpleType(Identifier),
the string+TextLocation overloads).
Because ctor parameters follow source order, BinaryOperatorExpression and
AssignmentExpression declare Operator between Left and Right so the generated
ctor is the expected (left, op, right). Pure-scalar nodes whose state is not
in slots (e.g. PrimitiveExpression's literal value) are left untouched.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
TokenRole was a printer-side descriptor whose only jobs were holding a token's
text and giving the writers an identity to single out specific tokens. The text
becomes plain const strings on the nodes, and the few identity checks are
reexpressed as node-stack context: interpolation braces are recognized by an
Interpolation on the writer's stack, record class versus struct coloring keys
off TypeDeclaration.ClassType, and the accessor/this/base/override cases fall
out of the surrounding node. WriteKeyword/WriteToken drop the descriptor
parameter. The constants are named for what the token is: a keyword, a symbol
token, or a modifier.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Slot identity already lived in node.Slot/CSharpSlotInfo/SlotKind after
the storage flip, so the parallel Role/Role<T> child model was redundant.
The Role-keyed mutation/query API is reexpressed over SlotKind, and the
role-index packing on AstNode flags is gone.
Because a node's Slot is now derived from its index in its parent rather
than stored on the child, the located-AST reattach in
InsertMissingTokensDecorator must capture the child's slot kind before
Remove() detaches it.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Siegfried Pammer