Reserved Word - Reserved Words and Language Independence

Reserved Words and Language Independence

Microsoft’s .NET Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specification allows code written in 40+ different programming languages to be combined together into a final product. Because of this, identifier/reserved word collisions can occur when code implemented in one language tries to execute code written in another language. For example, a Visual Basic.NET library may contain a class definition such as:

' Class Definition of This in Visual Basic.NET: Public Class this ' This class does something... End Class

If this is compiled and distributed as part of a toolbox, a C# programmer, wishing to define a variable of type “this” would encounter a problem: 'this' is a reserved word in C#. Thus, the following will not compile in C#:

// Using This Class in C#: this x = new this; // Won't compile!

A similar issue arises when accessing members, overriding virtual methods, and identifying namespaces.

In order to work around this issue, the specification allows the programmer to (in C#) place the at-sign before the identifier which forces it to be considered an identifier rather than a reserved word by the compiler.

// Using This Class in C#: @this x = new @this; // Will compile!

For consistency, this usage is also permitted in non-public settings such as local variables, parameter names, and private members.

Read more about this topic:  Reserved Word

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    Like Cato, give his little senate laws,
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    “The reader uses his eyes as well as or instead of his ears and is in every way encouraged to take a more abstract view of the language he sees. The written or printed sentence lends itself to structural analysis as the spoken does not because the reader’s eye can play back and forth over the words, giving him time to divide the sentence into visually appreciated parts and to reflect on the grammatical function.”
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