Replace Mono.Cecil usage with modified S.R.MetadataLoadContext

[jpobst]

Replacing our usage of Cecil with System.Reflection.MetadataLoadContext is an interesting idea that should in theory result in faster build times for tasks that need to scan assemblies.

For example, looking for all top-level classes that inherit Java.Lang.Object in Mono.Android.dll:

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen0	Gen1	Gen2	Allocated
FindJavaTypes - Cecil	34.19 ms	0.673 ms	0.775 ms	1200.0000	1133.3333	800.0000	45.82 MB
FindJavaTypes - MLC	10.15 ms	0.198 ms	0.235 ms	234.3750	203.1250	109.3750	5.34 MB

However, while MLC performs great resolving assemblies and iterating types, its performance tanks once you start digging deeper, like calling GetNestedTypes () or GetMethods () on it. If we extend the previous test case to also check nested types, MLC is already unusable:

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen0	Gen1	Gen2	Allocated
FindJavaTypes - Cecil	40.39 ms	0.793 ms	1.583 ms	1230.7692	1153.8462	769.2308	47.6 MB
FindJavaTypes - MLC	695.74 ms	13.769 ms	14.140 ms	17000.0000	16000.0000	3000.0000	343.34 MB

Interestingly, this performance hit seems to be related to trying to shoehorn the results into a System.Reflection compatible API. If we bypass that and instead add a way to call the otherwise internal EcmaDefinitionType.GetNestedTypesCore (NameFilter?) method directly, performance is back to excellent:

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen0	Gen1	Gen2	Allocated
FindJavaTypes - Cecil	40.39 ms	0.793 ms	1.583 ms	1230.7692	1153.8462	769.2308	47.6 MB
FindJavaTypes - MLC+	15.16 ms	0.292 ms	0.273 ms	328.1250	312.5000	125.0000	7.32 MB

If we create an MLC version of JavaCallableWrappers's CecilImporter class, we can see it performs worse, as it scans nested types, methods, constructors, etc.

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen0	Gen1	Gen2	Allocated
JCW Importer - Cecil	820.3 ms	13.94 ms	12.36 ms	15000.0000	14000.0000	3000.0000	358.88 MB
JCW Importer - MLC	1,827.1 ms	19.77 ms	17.52 ms	47000.0000	31000.0000	3000.0000	1065.28 MB

Once again, as we create "backdoors" to internal enumeration methods for these objects, we start to see performance wins over Cecil:

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen0	Gen1	Gen2	Allocated
JCW Importer - Cecil	820.3 ms	13.94 ms	12.36 ms	15000.0000	14000.0000	3000.0000	358.88 MB
JCW Importer - MLC+	546.5 ms	9.46 ms	8.85 ms	26000.0000	6000.0000	2000.0000	576.12 MB

MLC performance has been reported at dotnet/runtime#30886, but it does not seem like MLC is very actively under development anymore.

We could probably get some decent build performance wins if we created a fork of MLC that used the default assembly/module/type logic but had custom nested type/methods/constructors logic.

[jonpryor]

A related question is where would we want to consider migrating away from Cecil.

We've elsewhere discussed the idea of using Java.Interop.Tools.JavaCallableWrappers from a linker step. The linker already uses Cecil, so for Java.Interop.Tools.JavaCallableWrappers/jcw-gen, I don't think we necessarily have a reason to migrate away from Cecil.

generator, on the other hand, probably could use System.MetadataLoadContext or a fork of it.