From: cgf AT cygnus DOT com (Christopher Faylor)
Subject: Re:  New import library format proposal.
15 Apr 1998 18:53:07 -0700
Message-ID: <199804160125.VAA14161.cygnus.cygwin32.developers@tweedledumb.cygnus.com>
To: cygwin32-developers AT cygnus DOT com, sos AT buggy DOT prospect DOT com DOT ru

>I designed this import library format to speed-up process startup. No 
>exports are linked statically, all dll symbols (except LoadLibrary() and 
>GetProcAddres() in libkernel32.a) are resolved dynamically on demand. I 
>hope this should speed-up the startup time of a process. Actual linking is 
>performed only on the first call of dll-exported function, the next calls 
>are a bit faster than in a current implementation (direct jump instead of 
>indirect jump). Dll-exported datas should be accessed/imported in a old 
>(current) way. Library files will have a smaller size than now. New format 
>is compatible with old object files.
>
>Every import library module have the following structure:
>
> [pseudo code deleted]
>
>What do you think about? And... Do we need it?-)

I've mentioned doing something similar to this to a couple of people.
I think it could be a win.

The only thing I'm not sure about is that's self-modifying code, right?
In a multi-threaded application that's a little tricky.

cgf