• d-bugmail puremagic.com (15/15) Mar 27 2009 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764
• d-bugmail puremagic.com (6/6) Mar 27 2009 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764
• d-bugmail puremagic.com (4/4) Mar 27 2009 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764
• d-bugmail puremagic.com (22/25) Mar 28 2009 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764

d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764

           Summary: Skip link if main not found
           Product: D
           Version: 2.026
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: DMD
        AssignedTo: bugzilla digitalmars.com
        ReportedBy: steve.teale britseyeview.com


If when compiling a bunch of D files none is found to contain main(), skip the
link and output a simple message.


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d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764






I thought some more about this, and there's a problem. A module may not have a
main(), but it may reference another function in a library that does have a
main().


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d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764






Doesn't link fail if there is no main?


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d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2764


unknown simplemachines.org changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |unknown simplemachines.org






 I thought some more about this, and there's a problem. A module may not have a
 main(), but it may reference another function in a library that does have a
 main().

I think this is an important use-case.

More specifically, things like WinMain(), etc.  DMD doesn't special-case those
for you, so it's likely a framework/toolkit might write your WinMain for you
and give you a D function to hook in.  Although I'd do that with a template,
myself.

The best solution would be altering the linker, just so slightly, to output an
easier to understand message than "no start address."  As exactly correct as
this message may be, programmers more interested in application programming
than systems programming may be very perplexed.

That said, the most common case is when compiling with new libs - just the
default.  Maybe a solution is to show this error whenever no libs are passed
in, and add a switch (beside defaultlib) to suppress the error for other
default libraries?  It is only to improve documentation, after all.

-[Unknown]


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