Part III. Foundations for Object-oriented Programming in C

	Appendix C - Dynamic Link Libraries
	Visual C++ 6: The Complete Reference
	Chris H. Pappas and William H. Murray, III

Copyright 1998 The McGraw-Hill Companies

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	Appendix C: Dynamic Link Libraries

	Overview

	Dynamic link libraries (DLLs) are in many ways similar to other Visual C++ libraries in that they give the programmer an easy way to distribute new functions and other resources. DLLs differ from other Visual C++ libraries in that they are linked to the application at run time rather than during the compile/link cycle. This process is described as dynamic linking rather than static linking. Static linking occurs when linking C++ run-time libraries to an application at compile/link time. DLLs also offer the advantage in multitasking environments of sharing both functions and resources.

	DLLs can be divided into two distinct categories: conventional API-based DLLs written in C or C++ (without objects), and MFC object-based DLLs. API DLLs have the advantage of being portable from one compiler to another. DLLs based on the MFC are, of course, restricted to compilers using a licensed version of the MFC.

	Since our focus in this book has been on the MFC, we’ll demonstrate the development of a simple DLL with the use of the MFC library.

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