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digitalmars.D.learn - Beginner Question: Accesing a C .dll from D

reply cps <cpsmusic yahoo.com> writes:
Hi,

I'm a C/C++ programmer. I'm very interested in D.

At the moment my work requires the use of libsndfile
(http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/). Am I right in thinking that I can
access Windows .dlls from D? If so, is there an example of how to do this
anywhere? Is this difficult to do?

Cheers,

Chris
Sep 10 2006
parent reply nobody <nobody mailinator.com> writes:
cps wrote:

 Hi,
 
 I'm a C/C++ programmer. I'm very interested in D.
 
 At the moment my work requires the use of libsndfile
 (http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/). Am I right in thinking that I can
 access Windows .dlls from D? If so, is there an example of how to do this
 anywhere? Is this difficult to do?
 
 Cheers,
 
 Chris


You are correct that accessing Windows DLLs is possible in D. This page should 
be a great place to start learning more:

   Writing Win32 DLLs in D
   http://digitalmars.com/d/dll.html
Sep 11 2006
parent reply Don Clugston <dac nospam.com.au> writes:
nobody wrote:

 cps wrote:

 Hi,

 I'm a C/C++ programmer. I'm very interested in D.

 At the moment my work requires the use of libsndfile
 (http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/). Am I right in thinking that I can
 access Windows .dlls from D? If so, is there an example of how to do this
 anywhere? Is this difficult to do?

 Cheers,

 Chris


 
 You are correct that accessing Windows DLLs is possible in D. This page 
 should be a great place to start learning more:
 
   Writing Win32 DLLs in D
   http://digitalmars.com/d/dll.html


That's about *writing* DLLs. Using them is much easier.
All you need to do is
(1) take the C header file (probably libsndfile.h), run htoD on it to 
make a D file (which will be called libsndfile.d).
(2) take the C import lib, and if it's a Microsoft COFF format library 
(almost all are), run coffimplib on it. Say this creates a file 
libsndfile.lib.

in libsndfile.d, add the line
pragma(lib, "libsndfile.lib");
so that you don't need to specify it on the command line.

Then your D program can just

import libsndfile;

Now go off and make some magic <g>.

P.S. you can download htod and coffimplib from the DigitalMars site.
Some links:
http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?DigitalMarsTools
Sep 12 2006
parent Sean Kelly <sean f4.ca> writes:
Don Clugston wrote:

 nobody wrote:

 cps wrote:

 Hi,

 I'm a C/C++ programmer. I'm very interested in D.

 At the moment my work requires the use of libsndfile
 (http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/). Am I right in thinking that I 
 can
 access Windows .dlls from D? If so, is there an example of how to do 
 this
 anywhere? Is this difficult to do?

 Cheers,

 Chris


 You are correct that accessing Windows DLLs is possible in D. This 
 page should be a great place to start learning more:

   Writing Win32 DLLs in D
   http://digitalmars.com/d/dll.html


 
 That's about *writing* DLLs. Using them is much easier.
 All you need to do is
 (1) take the C header file (probably libsndfile.h), run htoD on it to 
 make a D file (which will be called libsndfile.d).
 (2) take the C import lib, and if it's a Microsoft COFF format library 
 (almost all are), run coffimplib on it. Say this creates a file 
 libsndfile.lib.
 
 in libsndfile.d, add the line
 pragma(lib, "libsndfile.lib");
 so that you don't need to specify it on the command line.
 
 Then your D program can just
 
 import libsndfile;
 
 Now go off and make some magic <g>.


Just a quick note--for pragma(lib) to work, you must build the module 
containing the pragma into your program.  Build does this automatically, 
but DMD/GDC do not :-)


Sean
Sep 12 2006