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POWhat can you do in MSIL that you cannot do in C# or VB.NET?
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  1. POWhat can you do in MSIL that you cannot do in C# or VB.NET?
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    copied!<p>All code written in .NET languages compiles to MSIL, but are there specific tasks / operations that you can do only using MSIL directly?</p> <p>Let us also have things done easier in MSIL than C#, VB.NET, F#, j# or any other .NET language.</p> <p>So far we have this:</p> <ol> <li>Tail recursion</li> <li>Generic Co/Contravariance</li> <li>Overloads which differ only in return types</li> <li>Override access modifiers</li> <li>Have a class which cannot inherit from System.Object</li> <li>Filtered exceptions (can be done in vb.net)</li> <li>Calling a virtual method of the current static class type.</li> <li>Get a handle on the boxed version of a value type.</li> <li>Do a try/fault.</li> <li>Usage of forbidden names.</li> <li><a href="http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet/archive/2008/12/10/value-types-and-parameterless-constructors.aspx" rel="noreferrer">Define your own parameterless constructors for value types</a>.</li> <li>Define events with a <code>raise</code> element.</li> <li>Some conversions allowed by the CLR but not by C#.</li> <li>Make a non <code>main()</code> method as the <code>.entrypoint</code>.</li> <li>work with the native <code>int</code> and native <code>unsigned int</code> types directly.</li> <li>Play with transient pointers</li> <li>emitbyte directive in MethodBodyItem</li> <li>Throw and catch non System.Exception types</li> <li>Inherit Enums (Unverified)</li> <li>You can treat an array of bytes as a (4x smaller) array of ints.</li> <li>You can have a field/method/property/event all have the same name(Unverified).</li> <li>You can branch back into a try block from its own catch block.</li> <li>You have access to the famandassem access specifier (<code>protected internal</code> is fam<strong>or</strong>assem)</li> <li>Direct access to the <code>&lt;Module&gt;</code> class for defining global functions, or a module initializer.</li> </ol>
 

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