From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FORGED_GMAIL_RCVD,
	FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Thread: 103376,d8e3cd3d8dbaa4fb
X-Google-NewGroupId: yes
X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Received: by 10.205.130.14 with SMTP id hk14mr5685985bkc.5.1343260225207;
        Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:50:25 -0700 (PDT)
Path: 
 m12ni27293bkm.0!nntp.google.com!news2.google.com!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
From: sbelmont700@gmail.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada  "library only" compiler ?
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:44:47 -0700 (PDT)
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Message-ID: <5e9f7ef8-65eb-4864-965f-7d89333995ea@googlegroups.com>
References: <2879c45e-f8e0-4434-9f82-968c585a4539@googlegroups.com>
 <a6tvrmFdinU1@mid.individual.net> <xO-dndcH8ZJTR5TNRVn_vwA@giganews.com>
 <87mx2ucags.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> <juctbd$gbq$1@munin.nbi.dk>
 <500AA31F.8060004@obry.net> <jukv9k$h1d$1@munin.nbi.dk>
 <500ed251$0$6189$ba4acef3@reader.news.orange.fr>
 <op.whypo9rkka8ora@aspire.local>
 <500f1412$0$6203$ba4acef3@reader.news.orange.fr>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.53.78.59
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1343260225 24787 127.0.0.1 (25 Jul 2012 23:50:25
 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:50:25 +0000 (UTC)
In-Reply-To: <500f1412$0$6203$ba4acef3@reader.news.orange.fr>
Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=206.53.78.59;
 posting-account=ShYTIAoAAABytvcS76ZrG9GdaV-nXYKy
User-Agent: G2/1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Date: 2012-07-25T16:44:47-07:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

On Tuesday, July 24, 2012 5:30:58 PM UTC-4, Pascal Obry wrote:
> There is no clearly specified data structures or whatever.
> A DLL is a container. To use it one need to interface to it, from Ada,
> from C, from Pascal, from Python... And for this you need to have a
> stable and clear API which has nothing to do with DLL.
>=20
> The Microsoft Win32 code happen to be in DLLs, but the same code could
> be provided as static library. No more or less problem. The same API,
> the same way to use it, the same need for an interface to it in C, Ada,
> Pascal, Python...
>=20

Win32 has actually three sets of APIs: the user-land API that the hoi-pollo=
i like us use (CreateFile), which in turn call another 'native' API (NTCrea=
teFile), which in turn traps into the protected mode parts of the OS (INT 2=
e, platform depending).  In theory, a program written in bare-bones ASM (or=
 the output of a compiler) could target any of these.  However, the problem=
 is that only the outermost Win32 API is gaurenteed not to change and remai=
n backwards compatible; your program is likely to break between versions of=
 Windows if you attempt cut out the middle man.

-sb