Re: DLL files

["Nick Roberts" <Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com>]

OK, but if you write a DLL which goes direct to the SVGA hardware
(bypassing Windows), Windows is probably not going to like it!

Assuming (as I am) that your Ada compiler targets DOS (or bare PC), perhaps
what you need to do is to write an Ada library unit (presumably a package)
-- forget the DLL -- which controls the SVGA board directly.  If the
compiler hosts under Windows, so much the better (richer environment), but
then to run (you _might_ be able to run in DOS box, otherwise) you will
have to 'shut down to DOS', and run there.

I'm afraid I don't have SVGA data to hand -- I'll a little rummage -- but
if you can get your hands on that, I reckon the package should be pretty
easy to knock up.

I hope this is some help to you.  If I'm getting the wrong end of the stick
(as I often do ;-), enlighten me!


== Nick Roberts ================================================
== Croydon, UK                       ===========================
==                                              ================
== Proprietor, ThoughtWing Software                   ==========
== Independent Software Development Consultant            ======
== Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com                              ====
== Voicemail & Fax +44 181-405 1124                          ===
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==           I live not in myself, but I become               ==
===          Portion of that around me; and to me             ==
====         High mountains are a feeling, but the hum        ==
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===========                             -- Byron [Childe Harold]


Andy Perkins <storm@vci.net> wrote in article
<34EC8B90.EEDC9238@vci.net>...
> Nick Roberts wrote:
> 
> > Use of DLLs implies Windows, which implies availability of the Windows
GDI
> > (Graphical Device Interface), which is a part of the Windows API, and
will
> > drive SVGA as well as umpteen other graphics protocols.  So it sounds
to me
> > like you just want to use the Windows API direct.
> 
>     That would be the best course, if I were planning to use the finished
> product in a C program.  The DLL will eventually be converted to an Ada
library
> file and imported into an Ada program.  Since the DLL can be converted to
an
> Ada library file, Ada can use (in a manner of speaking) DLL files, but as
far
> as I know, there is no way to use the Windows API from within Ada.