This commit replaces most usages of `ConvertManagedObjectToVariant` and
`ConvertVariantToManagedObjectOfType`, by using the `Godot.Variant`
struct instead of `System.Object`.
The most notable change is to the `GetGodotPropertyDefaultValues` method
that's generated for scripts. The dictionary it returns now stores
`Godot.Variant` values.
Remaining usages are:
- The `DelegateUtils` class, for the serialization of closure display
classes during assembly reloading by the editor. These display classes
are compiler generated classes to store values captured by a closure.
Since it's generated by the compiler, the only way we have to access
the fields is through reflection. This leads to using `System.Object`.
- Converting parameters when invoking constructors from the engine.
This will be replaced with source generators in the future.
- Legacy support for old `GetGodotPropertyDefaultValues` return values.
We need to keep supporting the old version of this generated method
for some time. Otherwise, if loading a project built with the previous
version, it could lead to the loss of exported property values.
Ideally, we should remove this legacy support before a stable release.
- Replace `IndexOutOfRangeException` with `ArgumentOutOfRangeException`
- Replace `Exception` with a more specific exception
- Add the parameter name to argument exception
- Update documentation for methods that throw exceptions
- Use `StringBuilder` to build exception messages
- Ensure exception messages end with a period
- MustBeVariant attribute can be used to enforce that generic types must
be a marshable from/to Variant.
- Also renames all diagnostic ids to be valid unicode identifiers.
This new version does not support the following type arguments:
- Generic types
- Array of Godot Object (Godot.Object[]) or derived types
The new implementation uses delegate pointers to call the Variant
conversion methods. We do type checking only once in the static
constructor to get the conversion delegates.
Now, we no longer need to do type checking every time, and we no
longer have to box value types.
This is the best implementation I could come up with, as C# generics
don't support anything similar to C++ template specializations.
- Array and Dictionary now store `Variant` instead of `System.Object`.
- Removed generic Array and Dictionary.
They cause too much issues, heavily relying on reflection and
very limited by the lack of a generic specialization.
- Removed support for non-Godot collections.
Support for them also relied heavily on reflection for marshaling.
Support for them will likely be re-introduced in the future, but
it will have to rely on source generators instead of reflection.
- Reduced our use of reflection.
The remaining usages will be moved to source generators soon.
The only usage that I'm not sure yet how to replace is dynamic
invocation of delegates.
Previously, we added source generators for invoking/accessing methods,
properties and fields in scripts. This freed us from the overhead of
reflection. However, the generated code still used our dynamic
marshaling functions, which do runtime type checking and box value
types.
This commit changes the bindings and source generators to include
'static' marshaling. Based on the types known at compile time, now
we generate the appropriate marshaling call for each type.
The editor no longer needs to create temporary instances to get the
default values. The initializer values of the exported properties are
still evaluated at runtime. For example, in the following example,
`GetInitialValue()` will be called when first looks for default values:
```
[Export] int MyValue = GetInitialValue();
```
Exporting fields with a non-supported type now results in a compiler
error rather than a runtime error when the script is used.
This replaces the way we invoke methods and set/get properties.
This first iteration rids us of runtime type checking in those
cases, as it's now done at compile time.
Later it will also stop needing the use of reflection. After that,
we will only depend on reflection for generic Godot Array and
Dictionary. We're stuck with reflection in generic collections
for now as C# doesn't support generic/template specialization.
This is only the initial implementation. Further iterations are
coming, specially once we switch to the native extension system
which completely changes the way members are accessed/invoked.
For example, with the native extension system we will likely need
to create `UnmanagedCallersOnly` invoke wrapper methods and return
function pointers to the engine.
Other kind of members, like event signals will be receiving the
same treatment in the future.
Ignacio Roldán Etcheverry
Raul Santos
antonWetzel