User talk:Jsmethers

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Microsoft Dynamic Link Library

Summary

• DRV
  • ARE DLLs. --tyomitch 19:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

• FON
  • NOT DLLs. They do not export functions. --tyomitch 19:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

• ICL
  • NOT DLLs. They do not export functions. --tyomitch 19:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
  • ARE DLLs. They are called Resource DLLs by Microsoft.

• SYS
  • NOT DLLs. They do not export functions. --tyomitch 19:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
  • (DOS and WIN16) are renamed COM files. They do not export functions. --tyomitch 08:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
  • (WinNT) are native EXEs, which do not use the WIN32 subsystem. They do not export functions. --tyomitch 08:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

• TTF
  • NOT DLLs. They have machine independent code. --tyomitch 08:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
  • NOT DLLs. They are neither PE or NE object files. --tyomitch 08:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

• LoadLibrary and LoadLibraryEx
  • Load EXE files. --tyomitch 11:57, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Can not load NE format files. --tyomitch 11:57, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Discussion

---

We need a better definiton of what makes a PE file a DLL file. Based on my references DLL, DRV, FON, ICL, and SYS are all given as example DLL files.

IMO it's the exports that make a PE file a DLL. A PE file without exports is essentially an EXE; I mean, just like SCRs are renamed EXEs, SYS are just (written in a special way and) renamed EXEs.

I don't have enough time right now to dig through MSDN for references; another fact is that MSDN is tremendously big, and it will likely contain many contradicting definitions. That's why I tried to give a reasonable definition myself. After all, what's the difference between EXE and DLL in your opinion?

Being loadable with LoadLibrary[Ex] isn't a good criterion; no NE DLLs can be loaded this way (so it bans both FON/FOT and DRV files).

And what's more important, LoadLibrary[Ex] succeeds with EXEs. (try it and see!) --tyomitch 11:57, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

OTOH, if you find a relevant definition in MSDN, I'll appreciate that. --tyomitch 21:19, 3 December 2005 (UTC)