Sixty seconds with PostSharp

While researching AOP I came across a product called PostSharp. I've come across this before but it requires a license so I haven't dedicated any time to it. Yesterday I decided to apply for an 'influencer' licence and got one today. Within sixty seconds I decided I like it.

This is what I did...

Normally I implement INotifyPropertyChanged something like this...

using System.Windows;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;

namespace PostSharp1

{

    public partial class Window1 : Window, INotifyPropertyChanged

    {

        private string _TheText;

        public string TheText

        {

            get { return _TheText; }

            set { SetProperty(ref _TheText, value); }

        }

        public Window1()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

        }

        public bool SetProperty<T>(ref T storage, T value, [CallerMemberName] string PropertyName = "")

        {

            if (object.Equals(storage, value))

                return false;

            storage = value;

            PropChanged(PropertyName);

            return true;

        }

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

        public void PropChanged(string name)

        {

            if (PropertyChanged != null)

                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));

        }

    }

}

Even though a lot of this code is normally derived from a base class, the syntax of the property is odious when there are a hundred of them on the page. Compare this to the same functionality when using PostSharp.

using System.Windows;

using PostSharp.Patterns.Model;

namespace PostSharp1

{

    [NotifyPropertyChanged]

    public partial class MainWindow : Window

    {

        public string TheText { get; set; }

        public MainWindow()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

        }

    }

}

Not having to spend hours coding highly repetitive property definitions makes the PostSharp license worth it in my opinion. And I've only been using it for sixty seconds.