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I'm reading this blog post at https://eatplayhate.me/2010/07/18/mono-cecil-vs-obfuscation-fight/. The Author used the word "semi-seedy" to describe some programming tasks like binding variables, enumerating properties etc. What exactly does "semi-seedy" mean here? Seedy means dirty and unpleasant, possibly connected with bad or illegal activities. Does semi-seedy means somewhat dirty and unpleasant? These are just programming tasks, which makes me a little confused.

Now, .NET comes with a powerful code introspection tool, System.Reflection. Reflection is great for binding variables, enumerating properties and doing all that kind of semi-seedy stuff you tend to want. It is not, however, great at editing code. Infact, it is so un-great as to not let you do it at all. Reflection works only on loaded assemblies and is really a metadata-manipulation library. If you want to get to the IL code itself, or go around renaming things, you’re going to need a more powerful tool. Enter Mono.Cecil.

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Nothing very complex here - 'seedy' should be defined in any decent dictionary, but in this context means 'nasty, 'unwanted', undesirable.

The prefix 'semi-' is also pretty standard - it means 'half' or more idiomatically it means 'partially', and is used to tone down the use of 'seedy'.

In context, this refers to the fact that programming is always a compromise, between brevity and readability; between performance and elegance; etc. Everyone likes to write 'clean' and 'elegant' code, but practicality means that real programmers often write code that they aren't proud of, and THAT is what is referred to here.

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