Can I add an implicit conversion for two classes which I don't directly control?

Question

I\'d like to be able to implicitly convert between two classes which are otherwise incompatible.

One of the classes is Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Vector3,

Answer 1

In C# you cannot. You could provide descendant types that have the extra conversions (provided the types aren't sealed); Or you could provide a generic wrapper class that somehow adds the conversion.

The convenience of all this depends on the way in which these wrappers/adaptations can be used with the original APIs.

On another note I see you are useing F# as well. IIRC F# is supposed to have some level of meta-programming ability (like many functional languages for .NET, such as Boo and Nemerle). It would not surprise me if that could be used here. Unfortunately my F is not sharp enough to help there

Answer 2

No, you can't. The implicit operator has to be defined as a member of one of the classes. However, you can define an extension method (your example didn't work as extension methods have to be in a public static class).

public static class ConverterExtensions
{
    public static Vector ToVector (this Vector3 input)
    {
      //convert
    }
}