Thread: DLL Question

Hey guys,

I have a question about using DLL's. On Linux I've used modules (.so files), dlopen() to load them, dlclose() to close them and dlsym() to call a function from each module.

I recently looked at a windows program and thought I would try my luck doing this on Windows, so I thought about using a DLL as there are not dl*() functions for modules or none that I've found.

My question is would I have to load the entire DLL into memory or can I simply have the DLL there call the proc each time I needed it, and where abouts would be a good start to look? I've done some basic searches on msdn and thought I would ask for a little more of a nudge.

Basically, I have the core program which basically does parsing and runs the program and I want to have an easily updatable option, so I thought I could have a "module" for each main feature, am I heading in the right direction or should I just give up and keep researching windows programming before I look into this area?

Cheers,

What language (C or C++ or MFC) and what IDE (compiler) do you use?

DLLs can be statically (at build time) or dynamically (at run time) linked.

Dynamic;
Look at LoadLibrary() and GetProcAddress() and FreeLibrary()

Static;
Use linker in IDE to add DLLs .lib file or look at the #import directive.

Well, me coming from a Linux background, I'm more inclined to look at Static from what you've suggested, I found something on MSDN about delay loading DLL's and such just after I posted the thread on here which looked good. I think dynamic is the way to go from what I was reading, lets play and see what happens, thanks for that