BlitzMax DLLs

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/BlitzMax DLLs

ziggy (Posted 2008) [#1]

Does anybody here know what a DEF file is needed for? Is it used for late dynamic linking? I have no idea...

Brucey (Posted 2008) [#2]

Def stands for "definition". It's a bit like a header file, in that it lists what functions are available in the dll. Can be used for building against a specific dll. For GCC (MinGW) you need to convert .def files into .a with a command line tool, which are used for the same purpose - defininng what is available in a dll. :-)

Brucey (Posted 2008) [#3]

Just for fun, here's a link : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/28d6s79h(VS.71).aspx

ziggy (Posted 2008) [#4]

Thanks for the link! If I don't get it wrong, I don't need the DEF file for anything unless I'm linking the functions at link time, instead of linking them at runtime?

grable (Posted 2008) [#5]

You need them if you want to export any symbols from your DLL, ie making it usable from other sources ;)

ziggy (Posted 2008) [#6]

But does not the DLL include simbols in itself? I've used a lot of DLLs without the need of any def file... ??