Early Binding with Generics - vb.net

Question

I have a class which takes the method address and arguments, and executes it later when told to do so.
' need to turn option strict off due to Execute method executing late-bound code
Option Strict Off
Public Class WorkItem
Private Action As Object
Private Args() As Object
Public Overloads Sub [Set](action As Action)
SetArgs(action)
End Sub
Public Overloads Sub [Set](Of T)(action As Action(Of T), arg As T)
SetArgs(action, arg)
End Sub
Public Overloads Sub [Set](Of T1, T2)(action As Action(Of T1, T2), arg1 As T1, arg2 As T2)
SetArgs(action, arg1, arg2)
End Sub
'*** more overloads of [Set] method go here...
Private Sub SetArgs(ByVal action As Object, ParamArray args() As Object)
Me.Action = action
Me.Args = args
End Sub
Public Sub Execute()
'-- early binding doesn't work
'DirectCast(Me.Action, Action(Of T)).Invoke(Args(0))
'-- this works, but forces me to to keep option strict off
Select Case Args.Length
Case 0 : Me.Action.Invoke()
Case 1 : Me.Action.Invoke(Args(0))
Case 2 : Me.Action.Invoke(Args(0), Args(1))
Case 3 : Me.Action.Invoke(Args(0), Args(1), Args(2))
Case 4 : Me.Action.Invoke(Args(0), Args(1), Args(2), Args(3))
End Select
End Sub
End Class
Here is some tester code:
Public Class Form1
Dim TheTask As WorkItem
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
TheTask = New WorkItem
TheTask.Set(AddressOf DummyProc, TextBox1)
End Sub
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
TheTask.Execute()
End Sub
Private Sub DummyProc(arg As TextBox)
Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
Debug.Print("work completed")
End Sub
End Class
The WorkItem class obviously doesn't work with OPTION STRICT ON, due to the late-bound call in Execute method.
Is there any way I can convert the late-bound call to early binding?

Answer 1

This can be achieved by using delegates. You can declare a delegate that represents a non-generic subroutine, and invoke a representation of that delegate on an object that passed arg as a constructor parameter. I don't know if your solution still needs a generic work item by implementing it like this, but my example still keeps that same setup:
Delegate Sub WorkItem()
Dim TheTask As WorkItem
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
TheTask = AddressOf (New DummyProc(Of TextBox)(TextBox1)).Execute
End Sub
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
TheTask.Invoke()
End Sub
Private Class DummyProc(Of T)
Private ReadOnly _arg As T
Public Sub New(ByVal arg As T)
_arg = arg
End Sub
Public Sub Execute()
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("My Arg: {0}", _arg))
Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
MessageBox.Show("work completed")
End Sub
End Class