Getting debugger context in C# interactive

Question

C# Interactive seems a lot more powerful than the Immediate Window (at least it handles lambda expressions that are often used in LINQ - see Visual Studio debugging "quick watch" tool and lambda expressions), but it looks like it can't be used as a replacement as it doesn't know about the debugger context. Is there a way to have access to the debugger context?

I've seen Getting debugger context in F# interactive and it might require the same things, but maybe there are new/different things available.

http://extendedimmediatewin.codeplex.com/ could be useful but looks quite dead, although someone said on Oct 18 2011 that he was planning to port it to VB.Net ( http://extendedimmediatewin.codeplex.com/discussions/75589 ).

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft on the Roslyn team.

Unfortunately, we don't have a way to get the debugger context right now. We are aware that it would useful, and as we get more of the core deliverables for Roslyn completed we hope to investigate more and see what can be done.

Answer 2

Not a complete solution, but in VS2015, after you've run Initialize Interactive with Project, you can use Debug > Attach to Process to connect to the InteractiveHost.exe process.

You can then debug functions from your project. You won't be able to debug one-off functions in the Interactive window, though, as Kevin explained.

As as side note, https://stackoverflow.com/a/40650343/467110 points out that you may have to have a C# Interactive window open before you open your solution in order to successfully Initialize Interactive with Project