Proposal: Create a reusable implementation of RuntimeClassHelpers.h and tracker_ref.h

[benstevens48]

It would be useful for people authoring their own components in C++/WinRT and consuming them in C# to have access to an easily reusable implementation of RuntimeClassHelpers.h and tracker_ref.h so that memory leaks can be avoided. I guess people can just copy the code, but it might be nice to provide it as a NuGet package or something.

In particular, if it could be also implemented in WILWRL, then perhaps Win2D could use it instead of requiring consumers to call RemoveFromVisualTree.

Also, I had a brief look at the code to see if I could understand it (not really), and it seems that there is no documentation of IReferenceTrackerExtension or IReferenceTrakerObject - see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/windows.ui.xaml.hosting.referencetracker/nn-windows-ui-xaml-hosting-referencetracker-ireferencetracker.

[StephenLPeters]

@jevansaks or @kmahone is this something we could publish? similar to how we published the test infrastructure stuff for outside use?

[kmahone]

The headers as they exist today aren't really able to be published independently since they depend on various other bits of our build (e.g. SharedHelpers.h, DispatcherHelper.h, etc.). But it would probably not be too difficult to create stand-alone versions of these headers, since I expect what is actually needed from other headers is fairly minimal. Where to publish them is another question - WIL might be a good option.

[benstevens48]

Sounds promising. Do you think it might be realistic for Win2D to use them instead of needing RemoveFromVisualTree? Actually, I think I got my acronyms confused before and meant WRL not WIL, since that's what Win2D is written in think - I'm not sure if this would require a completely new modified version of the headers in addition to the C++/WinRT-based version or whether some code could be shared. But it's nice if I accidentally made a good suggestion by referring to WIL!