Look at some hdden code in your VB project

Article
11/30/2009

Some code is always added to your VB project.

Try this:

Start VS (2008 or 2010 beta: the numbers below are for 2008)

File->New->Project->VB->Console App.

Build->Build Solution.

(I like to use temporary projects: see Use temporary projects in Visual Studio. I’m also using the General Profile (Tools->Import/Export Settings->Reset All Settings)

The build output window shows this:

------ Build started: Project: ConsoleApplication1, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Vbc.exe /noconfig /imports:Microsoft.VisualBasic,System,System.Collections,System.Collections.Generic,System.Data,System.Diagnostics,System.Linq,System.Xml.Linq /optioncompare:Binary /optionexplicit+ /optionstrict:custom /nowarn:42016,41999,42017,42018,42019,42032,42036,42020,42021,42022 /optioninfer+ /rootnamespace:ConsoleApplication1 /doc:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.xml /define:"CONFIG=\"Debug\",DEBUG=-1,TRACE=-1,_MyType=\"Console\",PLATFORM=\"AnyCPU\",_MYTYPE=\"Empty\"" /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Core.dll","C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll",C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Deployment.dll,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.dll,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Xml.dll,"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Xml.Linq.dll" /main:ConsoleApplication1.Module1 /debug+ /debug:full /filealign:512 /out:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe /resource:obj\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.Resources.resources /target:exe Module1.vb "My Project\AssemblyInfo.vb" "My Project\Application.Designer.vb" "My Project\Resources.Designer.vb" "My Project\Settings.Designer.vb"

ConsoleApplication1 -> C:\Users\calvinh\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe

========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

You can make your programs smaller by removing some features.

Now right click on the Project in Solution Explorer, and “choose Open Folder in Windows Explorer”, navigate to the ConsoleApplication1.EXE file to see how big it is.

Open a Visual Studio Command Prompt( Program Files->Visual Studio->Visual Studio Tools) and do this:

dir "C:\Users\calvinh\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe"

The size I get is 14,336 bytes.

Now use the Intermediate Language Disassembler :

Ildasm "C:\Users\calvinh\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug\ConsoleApplication1.exe"

You can navigate the tree view to see things like MyProject, MySettingsProperty, etc.

For example, even if you’re not using web services, this code is in your binary:

.method private static !!T Create__Instance__<.ctor T>(!!T 'instance') cil managed

{

.custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Diagnostics.DebuggerHiddenAttribute::.ctor() = ( 01 00 00 00 )

// Code size 32 (0x20)

.maxstack 2

.locals init ([0] !!T Create__Instance__,

[1] bool VB$CG$t_bool$S0)

IL_0000: nop

IL_0001: ldarg.0

IL_0002: box !!T

IL_0007: ldnull

IL_0008: ceq

IL_000a: stloc.1

IL_000b: ldloc.1

IL_000c: brfalse.s IL_0018

IL_000e: call !!0 [mscorlib]System.Activator::CreateInstance<!!0>()

IL_0013: stloc.0

IL_0014: br.s IL_001e

IL_0016: br.s IL_001d

IL_0018: nop

IL_0019: ldarg.0

IL_001a: stloc.0

IL_001b: br.s IL_001e

IL_001d: nop

IL_001e: ldloc.0

IL_001f: ret

} // end of method MyWebServices::Create__Instance__

Where does all this code come from? Is there a simple way to get rid of it?

VB Intellisense and background compiler know about this extra stuff too.

Type in this:

Dim r = My.WebService

Notice that after “My.” you see a a list of members of “My.”

Application

Computer

MySettings

Resources

Settings

User

WebServices

You can make the colored ones disappear.

Try this:

Project->Settings->Compiler->Advanced Compiler Options->Custom Constants

Put in _MYTYPE="Empty"

Immediately, you’ll see that there are compile errors for the My.Webservice line and that intellisense doesn’t show the colored members.

Now rebuild and see that the file size is 12,288.

This size difference is multiplied if you have multiple VB projects.

You can see some of the source VB that is used to generate this code:

File->Open->File-> "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll"

This will open the DLL in the VS Resource Editor. Navigate in the treeview to RCDATA->300 and you’ll see a binary dump of some code.

If you right click on the 300, choose Export->T.VB, then open T.VB, you see the contents below:

Now you can see the effect of changing “_MYTYPE” in the code.

Look at some hdden code in your VB project

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