Thanks for the reply, Nick.  I agree - having written a several hundred
lines of code using the CodeDOM namespace, I can see the design goals a
little more clearly now.

It is very convenient, especially as I need to generate both C# and
VB.Net code from my code generator, however it can get quite verbose :)

...all this:

prop.SetStatements.Add(new CodeConditionStatement(
 new CodeBinaryOperatorExpression(
 new CodePropertySetValueReferenceExpression(),
 CodeBinaryOperatorType.IdentityEquality,
 new CodePrimitiveExpression(null)),
 new CodeStatement[] {
  // true statements :
  // this.SetNull(this.ContactIdColumn);
  new CodeExpressionStatement(
   new CodeMethodInvokeExpression(
    new CodeThisReferenceExpression(),
     "SetNull", new CodeExpression[] {
      new CodeFieldReferenceExpression(
       new CodeThisReferenceExpression(), name1)}))},

  // false statements :
  // SetColumnValue(this.ContactIdColumn, value, value.ContactIdColumn);
  new CodeStatement[] {
   new CodeExpressionStatement(
    new CodeMethodInvokeExpression(null,
     "SetColumnValue",
     new CodeExpression[] {
      new CodeFieldReferenceExpression(
       new CodeThisReferenceExpression(), name1),
       new CodePropertySetValueReferenceExpression(),
       new CodeFieldReferenceExpression(
        new CodePropertySetValueReferenceExpression(),
         name2)}))}));

to represent:

set
{
  if ((value == null))
  {
    this.SetNull(this.ContactIdColumn);
  }
  else
  {
    SetColumnValue(this.ContactIdColumn, value, value.ContactIdColumn);
  }
}

It seems like I should create some methods that are short-hand
representations of these long class names (which are fine).

I could then represent it as:

prop.SetStatements.Add(CodeCS(
 CodeBOE(
 CodePSVRE,
 CodeBinaryOperatorType.IdentityEquality,
 CodePE(null)),
 CodeSAr {
  // true statements :
  // this.SetNull(this.ContactIdColumn);
  CodeES(
   CodeMIE(
    CodeThis,
     "SetNull", CodeEAr {
      CodeFRE(
       CodeThis, name1)}))},

  // false statements :
  // SetColumnValue(this.ContactIdColumn, value, value.ContactIdColumn);
  CodeSAr {
   CodeES(
    CodeMIE(null,
     "SetColumnValue",
     CodeEAr {
      CodeFRE(
       CodeThis, name1),
       CodePSVRE,
       CodeFRE(
        CodePSVRE, name2)}))}));

Bad idea?