Re: Plugins/Dynamic Libraries

[Adrien Plisson <aplisson-news@stochastique.net>]

Martin Krischik wrote:

> A current version of GNAT and GPS can do DLLs out of the box. Just Add the
> 
>     for Library_Dir         use  ...;
>     for Library_Name        use ...;
>     for Library_Kind        use ...;
>     for Library_Version     use ....;

these are static bindings done at compile time. the resulting executable 
contains a segment which tells the system to load the given library and 
relocate symbols in the process space. but if the library is not present 
at application startup, the application does not start: the system is 
responsible for loading and checking the dll. (at least it works this 
way under windows).

Andrew was talking about dynamic bindings at runtime. that is calling a 
function which loads the dll, whose name is contained in a variable. if 
at application startup the library does not exists, it is not a problem: 
the programmer is responsible for loading and checking the dll.

> to your project file and all needed steps will be done for you. Why there is
> no checkbox in GPS I don't know. For Windows you need the "experimental"
> MinGW GNAT based on GCC 3.4.2. Older GNAT's can do Linux DLLs only.

it seems GNAT 3.15p for windows is doing DLLs (according to the doc, i 
had no time to test it).

-- 
rien