What is a dll, please?

[ianpaisley]

Hi,

I just did a search and looked through the 166 messages on this board with 'dll' in the subject, but it brought me no closer to answering my question, 'What the hell is a dll?'.

I saw lots of stuff like 'Use CreateObject, ActiveX dlls, class references, C programming....', but what actually IS the purpose of a dll.

For instance, I'm making 6 different packages with VB - they're all pretty much the same, and they use the exact same ActiveX controls (about 10 of them). Would packaging all the controls in a dll (if that's the purpose of dlls) make my programmes run faster, and easier to maintain when I add updates and things like that?

Gracias.

[Sire]

Maybe this little phrase help you understand:

A library which is linked to application programs when they are loaded or run rather than as the final phase of compilation. This means that the same block of library code can be shared between several tasks rather than each task containing copies of the routines it uses. The executable is compiled with a library of "stubs" which allow link errors to be detected at compile-time. Then, at run-time, either the system loader or the task's entry code must arrange for library calls to be patched with the addresses of the real shared library routines, possibly via a jump table.

Hope I cleared up your mind about DLL files

Yours sincerely, Sire, [email protected]