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
With every optional slot nullable, the null-object pattern is dead. Generated
non-nullable getters return the backing field directly, which surfaced a last
tier of slots the decompiler legitimately leaves empty (omitted range operands,
an implicitly-typed array creation, unnamed parameters, an unbound generic
argument, and others) and flips them to nullable too. The machinery is then
removed entirely: the per-node null classes, the .Null statics and
VisitNullNode, AstNode.IsNull, the role null object, and Identifier.Null.
AcceptVisitor becomes unconditionally generated, and consumers move from
.IsNull to is null and from unconditional visits to ?.AcceptVisitor.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Optional single-child slots return T? with a real null instead of a role
null-object, taking the C# grammar as the oracle for which slots are optional.
The generator emits the property type as T? and matches it with MatchOptional,
and consumers move from .IsNull to is null / ?.. This covers the optional
statement, member, try-catch, creation-initializer and pattern slots and the
optional NameSlot tokens. A few slots the grammar marks required but the
decompiler legitimately leaves empty (the implicit-element-access target, an
implicitly-typed lambda parameter's type) are flipped to nullable as well.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
A [NameSlot("role")] partial string property makes the generator own the
backing Identifier token slot, the string accessor, and the match term, so a
convenience name string and its hand-written token slot collapse to a single
declaration. A nullOnEmpty option stores a null token for an empty name, used
where the output visitor keys off an absent token. Apply it across every
name-token node.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
NodeType was NRefactory's coarse node category, but only three reads remained
here: two checks now expressed as "is not Trivia" and one debug assert for the
pattern category. Remove the enum, the abstract property, every per-node
override, and the generator's emission, preserving the pattern-placeholder case
through an IPatternPlaceholder marker interface the output-visitor assert
checks. Also remove the unused PrimitiveExpression.AdvanceLocation helper.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Delete source-fidelity state the decompiler never reads, since it generates
the AST and never parses: SyntaxTree.FileName/ConditionalSymbols/TopExpression,
Comment.StartsLine/IsDocumentation, the preprocessor line/file fields, and a
computed ComposedType flag. Hoist the duplicated start/end location storage
into the shared Trivia base, and drop the redundant per-instance Location field
on single-token leaf nodes in favor of the base's print-time location.
Generate DoMatch for the last nodes (Comment, SyntaxTree, the using and
namespace declarations, Identifier).
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Generate DoMatch across the remaining expression, statement, type-member,
type-reference and general-scope nodes, including the inherited
EntityDeclaration name/return-type/attribute match, and stop generating it for
abstract base nodes. Matching every structural member fixes real
under-matching bugs (PointerReferenceExpression ignored its Target;
ExtensionDeclaration matched anything) while computed or derived members are
excluded from matching. PrimitiveExpression and PreProcessorDirective stay
hand-written by design. Pretty output is byte-identical.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The grammar-production doc comments were transcribed in ANTLR style and
often copied the C# spec verbatim, including sub-rules the AST does not
model. Rewrite them as W3C EBNF (::=, ?, *, +), unroll sub-productions
that are not themselves AST nodes (e.g. anonymous_function_modifier ->
'async'), and shape each production to the node's actual members. Render
top-level alternations of node productions as multi-line <code> blocks;
keep operator and keyword token lists inline.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Replace the hand-written DoMatch overrides on the expression nodes with
generated ones. The generator matches every real child and structural member,
so several matchers become stricter than the hand-written versions that
under-matched (for example a previously-skipped child or an ignored flag),
while Pretty output is unaffected. Convenience-string identifier slots are
excluded so the name string is matched once rather than also via its token.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Preparation for making optional single-value slots nullable: a role may omit
its null object and a slot may be cleared via SetChildByRole(role, null), and
the generated DoMatch emits MatchOptional for a nullable single child so an
absent child matches correctly. Both are inert until a slot is actually made
nullable.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Each concrete syntax node now carries, in an XML-doc <remarks> block, the
matching production from the C# language specification grammar (ECMA/Microsoft,
ANTLR notation), quoted verbatim. Aggregate nodes (e.g. BinaryOperatorExpression,
ComposedType, TypeDeclaration) list every production they span; lexical/trivia
nodes (Comment, the preprocessor directives, Identifier) cite the lexical rule.
Nodes with no spec production -- ErrorExpression, UndocumentedExpression,
InvocationAstType, TypeReferenceExpression, NamedExpression, DocumentationReference,
and the C# 14 ExtensionDeclaration -- carry a hand-written EBNF plus a note
explaining why no official production exists.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Turn on #nullable enable across the AST transform pipeline, ahead of
annotating the slot properties themselves. TransformContext now exposes the
nullable CurrentMember/CurrentTypeDefinition/CurrentModule contract already
declared by ITypeResolveContext, and the generated pattern-to-node conversion
returns a non-null node so patterns can be used in collection initializers
without warnings. No IL changes.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
The token writers and the UI syntax highlighter only need a token's identity (to
single out structural braces, the constructor this/base keyword, the override
modifier, and to colour keywords) -- not the AST child-role machinery. Make
TokenRole a standalone printer-side descriptor instead of a Role, turn the
modifier marker into a TokenRole, and change the WriteKeyword/WriteToken
signatures from Role to TokenRole across the writer hierarchy and the highlighter.
This lets the child Role hierarchy be removed without disturbing token output.
The dead OptionalComma/OptionalSemicolon bodies (no comma/semicolon/whitespace
children exist since the token drop) become no-ops, and the few sites that handed
the writer a child role for a keyword now pass none. Output is unchanged across
the decompiler suite, and the UI builds.
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8:Claude Code
Siegfried Pammer