c# - How does LINQPad compile code?

Question

I am guessing it neither invokes csc.exe or implement an entire compiler, so how does it work?

Update: Thanks to Jon Skeet for the pointer to code that was easy to learn from.

string c = @"
public class A
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine(""hello world"");
    }
}
";

CodeDomProvider compiler = new CSharpCodeProvider();

CompilerParameters parameters = new CompilerParameters();
parameters.WarningLevel = 4;
parameters.GenerateExecutable = false;
parameters.GenerateInMemory = true;

CompilerResults r = compiler.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, c);

Assembly a = r.CompiledAssembly;

Type[] ts = a.GetTypes();

Type t = ts[0];

object o = t.GetMethod("Main").Invoke(null, new object[] { new string[] { } });

Answer 1

From "How LINQPad Works":

LINQPad compiles your queries using .NET's CSharpCodeProvider (or VBCodeProvider)

Obviously there's rather more to it, but that's the bit you asked about - read the link for more details.

If you want to have a look at a rather more simplistic implementation, you could download the source code for Snippy, the little tool I created for C# in Depth. Again, it uses CSharpCodeProvider - and it's a simple enough example that it's easy to understand, with any luck. (There are only a few classes involved, IIRC.)