Roslynpad, a simple editor for C# scripts

Roslynpad is a tool for running .NET code designed to be lightweight, simple, and very agile to use.

One of the things .NET is criticized for compared to other development solutions like NodeJs or Python is its relative complexity or slowness when creating a new project.

And, actually, they are not wrong. The truth is that creating a new application in .NET usually requires more work and effort than in other alternatives, which makes it less used for “lightweight” script-type programs.

Roslynpad is an editor developed in CSharp and Avalonia. It is cross-platform and works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

It has features similar to the commercial program LINQpad, a development that inspired Roslynpad. Although Linqpad is a much more advanced solution, it is paid.

Roslynpad incorporates autocompletion features, error underlining, and correction suggestions. Likewise, NuGet packages can be added, although only from public repositories.

Trying Roslynpad

Let’s see the use of Roslynpad with a couple of simple examples. To do this, we simply have to open a new script and write the following.

Console.WriteLine("Hello from Roslynpad");

If we run the code we will see the output in the command console. A very useful tool is Dump(), which appears as an extension method for any object and allows us to display results. For example

var myListadito = new [] {1, 2, 3, 4};

myListadito.Where(x=> x > 2).Select(x=> x * 10).Dump();

Of course, we can also make somewhat more complex programs, with functions, classes, assemblies, and the rest of the .NET tools.

For example, in this simple script we would rename all the files in a folder in the form of 0.txt, 1.txt, …

var path = @"C:\myPath";
var myFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(path).ToArray();

for (int i = 0; i < myFiles.Length; i++)
{
    Rename(myFiles[i], @$"{path}\{i}.txt");
}

public static void Rename(string source, string newName)
{
    var fileInfo = new System.IO.FileInfo(source);
    fileInfo.MoveTo(fileInfo.Directory.FullName + "\\" + newName);
}