DCOM,API,DLL's in the .Net World

[Tom Yasnowski]

How relevant are these technologies with the new .NET era?
Thing is I am a VB newbie who does not know yet how to use
these things, and do not quite understand them or the differences. I want to blaze forward with VB .NET et al,
but wonder to what extent I should learn these things first. Going to have to spend a lot of $ and time to "get it" but what is the point if it is outdated?
Tom

[Cander]

dll's are still used
You can still use Com components/Active X and API's in .NET , but it is not recommended unless absolutly necessary as com interop causes some overhead.

the main to study is the framework namespaces and classes as many are included in the framework that make many api calls and some com componenets obsolete

[Tom Yasnowski]

Isn't API's a type of DLL? I have read that a DLL is a dynamic link
to "files" What type of "file"? I have source of a DLL written in
VB, the stuff it does is just like any other VB code, creates a ADO
recordset, updates data, etc. So how is that a "File"?

[Cander]

Api's are functions of dll's that windows uses that you can also call in your apps.

dll is a file
text files are a file
an exe are a file
a batch file is a file
a database is a file


I really dont understand what you are trying to get at.

[Tom Yasnowski]

Well what I am getting at is for starters is that I am a bit confused
on the relationship's between them.-- Yes your right on the file definiton. But Being an old midrange/mainframe programmer, I am conditioned to understand that a "file" usually contains data, and a compiled program is an "object"-- But here we refer to everything as a "file". But now when I come to think of it, on an AS400, RPG source code is in a source "file"... Maybe I am confused on terminology. So maybe I ought to think of DLL's as just a collection of source files ...
Thanks
Tom

[thinktank2]

In Windows, Everything is an Object
In Unix , Everything is a file

[DevGrp]

Hey Cander, the Framework does not cover all the API calls, so sometimes, you still need to use the api.

[Shawn N]

Using DCOM and APIs should be avoided as much as possible. Reasoning behind this is that not only does it cost overhead, but once cross-platform versions of the framework are developed your programs won't work with them because they have dependencies specific for Windows.

Tom: APIs are functions [usually] encapsulated in DLL files. Kind of like a shared function in a class. DLLs can also encapsulate objects that you can use in your VB program.

[BG]

A dll is a dynamic link library. Not "Library" like on an as/400. All it actually is really is a file containing compiled code that can be executed by other dll's or ececutable applications. Even though a dll is actually a file, programmers call them objects. Unfortunatly now that oop is the new standard and the jackarses a microsheit couldnt think up another word, everything is called an object now. Just keep in mind you will be compiling all of you code into exe's or dll's

[Shawn N]

How is a DLL an object???

[edit]
Maybe if it was a COM DLL but even then I wouldn't actually consider the DLL anything but a librariy of objects (instead of functions) and not really an object.
[/edit]

[BG]

I said programmers call them objects. It's a bad practice but they do. Even documentation from Microsoft even calls them objects now and then? Read some of the documentation on object models on msdn. I never said the were objects. It is very confusing switching from RPG and IBM type systems to the microsoft model. Been there done that. It is a loose term that is thrown around too much.

BTW Why are you switching. AS/400's rock? I had to not my choice. Nothing better than returning data from a billion + Logical in less a second.

[Tom Yasnowski]

Yes AS/400's DO rock! Native 64-bit architecture a long time ago.
Fastest JAVA Virtaul Machine out there.My old employer has a Win2000 card on the 400 that utilizes the DB2/400 database; Has Lotus Domino server native on the machine, so all email data comes through and stored ont the 400. There has neve been a known security breach on this machine. They are supporting 4 facilities on this one machine, with no NT/Email/Network,security , blah blah blah overhead, it is that stable. Just 3 programmers and a PC guy. Of course, all this cool stuff was done AFTER I left. I got tired of RPG/Cobol, and given the fact IBM is doing everything in the power to NOT market this machine, I saw myself as a "dinosaur" at an early age. So here I am in the ERP/VB world. Once out of my AS400 "cocoon", I learned a LOT about how the "other half" lives, and boy do non-AS/400 programmers have a lot of S**T to put up with! I can't see how non-AS400 IT shops put up with all the crappy hardware/os/software out there! Total lack of quality.

Regards
Tom

[Cander]

Let me try to make it a bit more clear...a dll is a file..but to your program it is an object...make sense...


DevGrp..I know that..that is why I said many..not all API's...d'uh on you!!