An Investigation into the Prevalence of Reflection Techniques in Distributed Microsoft .Net NuGet Artefacts

This paper investigates the prevalence of reflection and reflective techniques in the NuGet distribution mechanism and applies the results of the prevalence into a general discussion on the prevalence of reflective techniques onto the Microsoft .Net ecosystem as whole. The results show a over 15% utilization in over 6 million NuGets which suggests that reflective techniques are a very valuable technique in the .Net ecosystem. The results also show and discuss the number of overall NuGets utilizing reflection, unique NuGets utilizing reflection, and the most popular reflective references in said NuGets. The paper then concludes with a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing reflection, and the value of learning and utilizing the technique for developers both at the initial stages of their career and the later ones.