Mail Archives: djgpp/1998/02/24/19:16:16
I think the question here should be do we need to use DLLs in DOS. I think
that the main reason DLLs were designed was that in Windows (or any other
multitasking OS, really) you might have many different apps using the same
functions and code. Instead of static linking everything, and having
multiple copies of the same code in memory at any one time, we can put this
stuff in DLLs and share it.
In my experience the only kinds of fucntions (besides the kinds listed
above) that I would really want to put into a DLL would be stuff that I
might or might not use. Fo example, if I wrote two versions of a function,
one for 486/Pentium CPUs, and one for MMX CPUs, and dertemine at run time
which type of CPU I am running on, I don't bother to load the other
function.
However, thes types of functions are usually fairly small (usually
assembly), and the memory that is used by my code is usually not a major
concern for my programs.
Actually all Windows does is load the code into a code segment and give you
the address. That shouldn't be that hard to implement by yourself, really.
Take a look at the Windows SDK if you are interested in how they did it, or
better yet, look around at the abundance of GNU and other free-ware
available on the Net, usually with source-code, and you should be able to
work it out.
Chris Bilson
chrisb AT NOSPAMms12 DOT hinet DOT net
Vic wrote <34F1C6C8 DOT 693E AT cam DOT org>...
>Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET) wrote:
>> But I don't know if you really need it because just using libraries you
only
>> need to relink your project, not to recompile.
>about using DLLs in DOS... I think I saw a couple of games that were 32
>bit (watcom I think) for DOS and had DLLs into the directory (like for
>sound and graphix drivers). Would it be possible to make DJGPP work with
>DLLs?
>--
>--> http://www.cam.org/~tudor <--
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