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Hello, I have an old application which is windows 3.1 based. Therefore the application is 16bits and is build in plain C. The frontend-part of the application cannot be changed (in terms of rebuild or redesign), but the backend must change. This new backend is a 32bit application. The documentation on thunking is very minimal. It allready costs me a lot of time just to gather the tools needed.
Has anyone a working sample for me.
> It allready costs me a lot of time just to gather the tools needed.
And how much more is it likely to cost before rewriting the front-end seems like a good idea?
Win3.1 is only a few years LESS obsolete than DOS.
Q1: How many bugs does your Win3.1 app have that no one dare fix because the toolchain is all broken.
Q2: How many features do you wish you had, but no one dare add because the toolchain is all broken.
Are you going to be running this "edifice" on a true win32 operating system (with the Win3.1 fossil running in a VM) or are you going to be using Win3.1 and something like the Win32s kludge to take care of the new 32-bit module?
Also, can you explain why you "must" do one thing and "cannot" do the other?
In fact the frontend is a very old legacy tool written in ObjectView, with lots and lots of functionality. As it works now, it prepairs and builds up calls to the 16bit dll. This dll then calls the bespoke "backend"-dll to do the arithmetic. Long before my time, there has been an upgrade to a 32bits environment. So yes, it is all running on win32.
The backend is changed, because the customer will use standard-software to do the calculations. The frontend will be replaced in the next few years. It will be replaced by a completely new to build bespoke application. Till then the old front-end stays in place. A thunk as an interface will be a way to overcome these years.
Seems the MS article on it assumes you use their tools, but the only vaguely-useful reference I can find is this:
How To Call 32-bit Code from 16-bit Code Under Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition
You have to ask yourself - how many hours it will be before you give up and just say that the whole thing has to be rewritten. If you can't find documentation on what you want to do, chances are that NOBODY has done this in a seriously long time.
Suggesting a rewrite of what sounds like a large working system is maybe a bit much to ask of one developer.
This link may be more helpful: Calling 32-bit Code From 16-bit Apps
Yes, I have seen that link while searching for a solution. I think I have to go on trial and error. Thanks for the suggestions