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Today I found a need to take a look at the code inside of a DLL (.NET Class Library Assembly).  I remembered the trusty Microsoft ILDASM tool that comes with the .NET Framework and started there.  For those of you .NET developers out there who aren’t familiar with this tool, you should know that it is your friend. ILDASM (Intermediate Language Dis-ASseMbler) basically lets you view the MSIL code (Microsoft Intermediate Language) of the assembly, which the .NET CLR (Common Language Runtime) actually executes.  MSIL is not directly executable, and isn’t something you would want to attempt to program in (that’s why its an intermediate language), but it can provide much insight as to how an assembly is written.

But then I stumbled on this article which talks about .NET Relector, which is like the greatest thing since Red Bull ™.  Reflector essentially decompiles a .NET Assembly into your choice of MSIL, C#, VB, Delphi, MC++, or Chrome.  It is a beautiful thing.

Important note: both tools decompile for “view only”.  It doesn’t decompile back to original source files.  I suppose if you really want to decompile, edit, then recompile, you’d probably have a lot of copy-and-pasting to do.