Table of Contents
iii
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................xii
1. Scope............................................................................................................................................................. 1
2. Conformance ...............................................................................................................................................2
3. Normative references..................................................................................................................................3
4. Definitions....................................................................................................................................................4
5. Notational conventions................................................................................................................................7
6. Acronyms and abbreviations .....................................................................................................................8
7. General description.....................................................................................................................................9
8. Language overview....................................................................................................................................10
8.1 Getting started ....................................................................................................................................... 10
8.2 Types ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
8.2.1 Fundamental types and the CLI ...................................................................................................... 12
8.2.2 Conversions .................................................................................................................................... 13
8.2.3 CLI array types ............................................................................................................................... 13
8.2.4 Type system unification.................................................................................................................. 13
8.2.5 Pointers, handles, and null .............................................................................................................. 14
8.3 Parameters ............................................................................................................................................. 16
8.4 Automatic memory management........................................................................................................... 17
8.5 Expressions............................................................................................................................................ 18
8.6 Statements.............................................................................................................................................. 19
8.7 Delegates ............................................................................................................................................... 19
8.8 Native and ref classes ............................................................................................................................ 20
8.8.1 Literal fields.................................................................................................................................... 20
8.8.2 Initonly fields.................................................................................................................................. 21
8.8.3 Functions......................................................................................................................................... 21
8.8.4 Properties ........................................................................................................................................ 21
8.8.5 Events.............................................................................................................................................. 23
8.8.6 Static operators ............................................................................................................................... 24
8.8.7 Instance constructors....................................................................................................................... 25
8.8.8 Destructors and finalizers ............................................................................................................... 25
8.8.9 Static constructors........................................................................................................................... 26
8.8.10 Inheritance .................................................................................................................................... 27
8.9 Value classes ......................................................................................................................................... 28
8.10 Interfaces ............................................................................................................................................. 28
8.11 Enums.................................................................................................................................................. 30
8.12 Namespaces and assemblies ................................................................................................................ 30
8.13 Versioning ........................................................................................................................................... 31
8.14 Attributes ............................................................................................................................................. 32
8.15 Generics............................................................................................................................................... 33
8.15.1 Creating and consuming generics ................................................................................................. 33
8.15.2 Constraints .................................................................................................................................... 34
8.15.3 Generic functions.......................................................................................................................... 35
9. Lexical structure........................................................................................................................................37
9.1 Tokens ................................................................................................................................................... 37
9.1.1 Identifiers ........................................................................................................................................ 37
9.1.2 Keywords ........................................................................................................................................ 38
