Embedding F# Compiler: NuGet References

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 08:52:26 +0100

UPDATE: If you are looking for a ready to use solution please check out my fsc-host NuGet package. Also I wrote a blog post about it.

Intro ¶

In the previous post I showed how to extend an F# application with scripting capabilities. This time I want to extend the previous example with the #r directive support and resolving NuGet dependencies.

How to ¶

On high level we need to extract NuGet packages information from the script and pass it to the compiler as additional arguments. Before compiling we also need to dynamically load the referenced dlls to the host application. I first took the naive approach of parsing and extracting the directives from AST and feeding them into FSharpDependencyManager. It worked to an extent. Luckily, FsChecker comes with a built-in solution. We can use GetProjectOptionsFromScript and subsequently ParseAndCheckProject methods. That way we can retrieve DependencyFiles and extract resolved dlls’ paths.

Embedding F# Compiler

Sat, 29 May 2021 10:03:24 +0100

UPDATE: If you are looking for a ready to use solution please check out my fsc-host NuGet package. Also I wrote a blog post about it.

Motivation ¶

Embedded scripting is one of the ways of providing flexibility to compiled applications. It is not free from problems (performance penalty, security issues, additional tooling is required). But if your goal is a ceremony-free flexibility for the end-user then scripting is a very robust way¹ . F# comes with great capabilities in this area. I want to show you how you can extend your otherwise statically compiled program with scripting.

Compiler on queil.net

Embedding F# Compiler: NuGet References

Intro ¶

How to ¶

Embedding F# Compiler

Motivation ¶