BHoM_Engine: Fix issues with system types from newer runtimes to older

BHoM_Engine/Create/Type/GenericType.cs

@@ -142,7 +142,11 @@ private static Type GenericTypeAngleBrackets(string name, bool silent = false, b
             }
             //Main type definition as string up until the first split char (first '<').
             //Number of generic arguments will be 1 less than the number of argsSplit count
-            return GenericType(name.Substring(0, argsSplit[0]) + "`" + (argsSplit.Count - 1), arguments, silent, takeFirstIfMultiple);
+            Type type = GenericType(name.Substring(0, argsSplit[0]) + "`" + (argsSplit.Count - 1), arguments, silent, takeFirstIfMultiple);
+
+            if (type != null && name.Contains("&"))
+                type = type.MakeByRefType();
+            return type;
         }
 
         /***************************************************/
@@ -211,7 +215,10 @@ private static Type GenericTypeSquareBrackets(string name, bool silent = false,
             string mainName = name.Substring(0, nameEnd);
             //Main type definition as string up until the first split char (first '<').
             //Number of generic arguments will be 1 less than the number of argsSplit count
-            return GenericType(mainName, arguments, silent, takeFirstIfMultiple);
+            Type type = GenericType(mainName, arguments, silent, takeFirstIfMultiple);
+            if (type != null && name.Contains("&"))
+                type = type.MakeByRefType();
+            return type;
         }
 
         /***************************************************/

BHoM_Engine/Create/Type/Type.cs

@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@ public static Type Type(string name, bool silent = false, bool takeFirstIfMultip
                 return null;
             }
 
+            if (name.StartsWith("System.")) //If a system type, try create it before doing anything else. If failing, rest of method will handle unqualified, generics, reference etc
+            {
+                Type type = System.Type.GetType(name);
+                if (type != null)
+                    return type;
+            }
+
             if (name.Contains('<'))
                 return GenericTypeAngleBrackets(name, silent, takeFirstIfMultiple);
             else if (name.Contains('`') && name.Contains("[["))
@@ -67,9 +74,9 @@ public static Type Type(string name, bool silent = false, bool takeFirstIfMultip
                 if (type == null)
                     type = System.Type.GetType(unQualifiedName);    //Fallback for when deserialising a type from a later net runtime to a lower net runtime. Can be critical when going between softwares of different net runtimes.
 
-                if (type == null && name.EndsWith("&"))
+                if (type == null && name.Contains("&"))
                 {
-                    type = Type(name.TrimEnd(new char[] { '&' }), true);
+                    type = Type(name.Replace("&", ""), silent, takeFirstIfMultiple);
                     if (type != null)
                         type = type.MakeByRefType();
                 }
@@ -103,7 +110,9 @@ public static Type Type(string name, bool silent = false, bool takeFirstIfMultip
             ["System.Drawing.Bitmap"] = typeof(System.Drawing.Bitmap),
             ["System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary`2"] = typeof(System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary<,>),
             ["System.Data.DataTable"] = typeof(System.Data.DataTable),
-            ["System.Collections.Generic.HashSet`1"] = typeof(System.Collections.Generic.HashSet<>)
+            ["System.Collections.Generic.HashSet`1"] = typeof(System.Collections.Generic.HashSet<>),
+            ["System.Xml.XmlNode"] = typeof(System.Xml.XmlNode),
+            ["System.Xml.Linq.XDocument"] = typeof(System.Xml.Linq.XDocument),
         };
 
         /*******************************************/

Serialiser_Engine/Compute/Deserialise/Type.cs

@@ -146,15 +146,11 @@ private static Type GetTypeFromName(string fullName)
             Type type = null;
             if (fullName == "T")
                 return null;
-            if (fullName.IsOmNamespace())
-                type = Base.Create.Type(fullName, true, true);
             else if (fullName.IsEngineNamespace())
                 type = Base.Create.EngineType(fullName, true, true);
             else
             {
-                type = Type.GetType(fullName);
-                if (type == null)
-                    type = System.Type.GetType(Base.Query.UnqualifiedName(fullName));
+                type = type = Base.Create.Type(fullName, true, true);
             }
 
             if (type == null)
@@ -168,7 +164,6 @@ private static Type GetTypeFromName(string fullName)
         }
 
         /*******************************************/
-
     }
 }