DebugVisualizer, circular reference

Question

The problem I'm facing might be stupid, but I've never encountered it, so I guess I need some help. I'm learning how to use a Debug Visualizer. I've created one: DebuggerSide.cs located in CarGarageVisualizer namespace.

I wanted the type of CarGarage<T> to be seen in this visualizer when debugging instance of this, so I've put following attributes to the class:

    [DebuggerVisualizer(typeof(CarGarageVisualizer.DebuggerSide))]
    [Serializable]
    public class CarGarage<T>:IEnumerable<T>
        where T : Car,new()
    {
    ...
    }

Now, to add first attribute I needed to add reference to CarGarageVisualizer that contains the DebuggerSide class. That's OK. But now, in my DebuggerSide's overriden method Show() I wanted to explicitly cast object gained from the objectProvider argument to the type of CarGarage<T>. But to be able to do this I would need to reference the CarGarageLibrary that contains the definition of this. And as I said I can't do that, because I get the error about recursive reference.

From other post on this subject, I know it's a bad practice. But, I don't want to copy the CarGarage<T> class to my Visualizer namespace (that would solve the problem, but I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do) unless there's not a better option.

Can anybody help me with this?

Answer 1

You should put the CarGarageVisualizer.DebuggerSide in a separate library that will and can be referenced by both.

Didn't get it correctly, I think.

What about, putting the CarGarage<T> in a separate library.

library CarGarage:
[Serializable]
public class CarGarage<T>:IEnumerable<T>
    where T : Car,new()
{
...
}

---

library DebugVis:  (uses CarGarage)
DebuggerSide....

---

library app:  (uses CarGarage)
[DebuggerVisualizer(typeof(CarGarageVisualizer.DebuggerSide))]
public class CarGarageImpl<T> : CarGarage<T> { }