Re: [K3d-development] Using VC to build

[Timothy M. S. <ts...@k-...>]

Paul Gregory wrote:
> The alternative to __delcspec(dllexport) is to use a .def file 
> (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d91k01sh(VS.80).aspx 
> <http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d91k01sh%28VS.80%29.aspx>), 
> however, the bottom line is the same, you have to explicitly identify 
> the symbols that are to be exported from the DLL. There is no, as far 
> as I am aware, way of mimicking the Linux behaviour of exporting all 
> symbols from a DLL. Not only that, but there are some more significant 
> concerns on Windows you'll likely hit, there can be no unresolved 
> external symbols in a DLL at the time of linking the DLL. Linux allows 
> you to have unresolved symbols at link time, much like linking a 
> static library, that will be resolved at load time, that cannot be the 
> case with Windows. Just a heads up.

Generating a .def file with every symbol isn't too difficult, I did it 
for gtkmm several years ago - you can either use DUMPBIN and some string 
processing or write a simple (< 50 lines of code) executable to dump all 
the symbols from your binary into a .def file.  That covers exporting, 
you just use the .def file to generate the DLL's .lib file.  The problem 
is with the import for users of a DLL - I don't recall how it used to be 
done pre-declspec.  Seems like it was as simple as linking with the 
DLL's .lib file !?

Cheers,
Tim