The source generators feature was adding in .NET 5. They allow you to do interesting things like generate additional source files that will get added to a compilation.

In this video, Kathleen chats with Jared Parsons to find out what source generators are capable of.

• [01:15] - What are Source Generators?
• [05:24] - Demo: Real-time code generator for classes
• [10:54] - Demo: Generating INotifyPropertyChanged
• [13:16] - How to learn about building generators?

Useful Links

The Discussion

• Paula Scholz

  Could the [AutoNotify] attribute be modified to add serialization attributes to properties during generation?
  
  Also, can you stack attributes? For example, can I do this?
  
  
  public class Test
  {
  [AutoNotify]
  [AutoEquality]
  private int _id;
  }
  
  generates
  [DataContract]
  public class Test : INotifyPropertyChanged
  {
  ....INotifyPropertyChanged stuff......
  
  [DataMember]
  public int Id
  {
  get { return _id; }
  set { ...INotifyPropertyChanged stuff }
  }
  
  .... Equality stuff....
  
  }

  Last modified 4 days ago

• Amirsas

  so basically u end up with 2 files the on you type, and 1 is auto generated. what do u do in the rest of the project? reference only the auto generated file?
  what is the necessary project setup to support this?
  Last modified 2 days ago

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