Alias Generic Type With ASP.Net Import Directive in VB.Net Page

Question

I can't seem to import a generic type on an ASP.Net page set to a language of "vb":

<%@ Page Language="vb" %>
<%-- This works fine. --%>
<%@ Import Namespace="MyString=System.String" %>
<%-- This gives an error. --%>
<%@ Import Namespace="MyList=System.Collections.Generic.List(Of System.String)" %>
<%-- Error: "The 'namespace' attribute cannot contain spaces." --%>

Note that I'm NOT interested in these alternatives (for boring reasons you don't care about):

• Alter the web.config.
• Alter the code-behind.
• Use the code-behind instead of the page.
• Using C# instead of VB.Net.
• Googling (the MSDN page makes no mention of generic types).
• Modifying the app.config.
• Adding the namespace to the "imported namespaces" via the "References" tab in the project settings.
• Workarounds (I already have workarounds, but I want to see if this can be done properly)

Is it possible to alias a generic type on a VB.Net ASP.Net page, or is this an oversight by Microsoft?

Answer 1

Yeah, bad news:

1. You can't alias a generic type anywhere in .NET (may have changed recently, don't think so).
2. You can't import a namespace with a space in it, in ASP.NET. It's the parser for the ASPX that's the issue. Yep, Microsoft oversight. Since C# would be List<System.String> , it would not throw the error. They left out VB again.