• aeschere (7/7) Dec 05 2007 I am trying to use D in more of my everyday programming (utility
• Bill Baxter (17/24) Dec 05 2007 D does support linking to C. The main caveat is that if you're using
• Robert Fraser (8/17) Dec 05 2007 Yes, that's one of the main features of D :-)!

aeschere <aeschere nospam.cryptobit.org> writes:

I am trying to use D in more of my everyday programming (utility
programming at the moment).  However, quite often I need to link to
various C libraries (for example pcap).  Does D support linking to C
libraries?  If it does, are there special concerns that I need to be
aware of?

Thank you in advance for your time,

Michael

Bill Baxter <dnewsgroup billbaxter.com> writes:

aeschere wrote:
 I am trying to use D in more of my everyday programming (utility
 programming at the moment).  However, quite often I need to link to
 various C libraries (for example pcap).  Does D support linking to C
 libraries?  If it does, are there special concerns that I need to be
 aware of?
 
 Thank you in advance for your time,

D does support linking to C.  The main caveat is that if you're using 
the DMD compiler on Windows you will need to compile the C library with 
DMC (the Digital Mars C compiler).  This is because DMD/DMC only support 
compiled code and libraries in the OMF format, whereas Visual Studio and 
MinGW generate COFF.

The other option is if the C code is in a DLL on Windows, then you can 
create a DMD-compatible import lib from it using the 'implib' program 
from the free "Basic Utilities Package" (BUP):
* http://www.digitalmars.com/ctg/implib.html
* http://ftp.digitalmars.com/bup.zip


On linux DMD uses ELF like other linux compilers, so I think it's easier 
there.

There's a whole different set of answers to this question if you're 
using GDC.  This sounds like a good topic for a FAQ page somewhere on 
the wiki.

--bb

Robert Fraser <fraserofthenight gmail.com> writes:

aeschere wrote:
 I am trying to use D in more of my everyday programming (utility
 programming at the moment).  However, quite often I need to link to
 various C libraries (for example pcap).  Does D support linking to C
 libraries?  If it does, are there special concerns that I need to be
 aware of?
 
 Thank you in advance for your time,
 
 Michael

Yes, that's one of the main features of D :-)!

Check out the docs for it: http://www.digitalmars.com/d/interfaceToC.html

I'd recommend taking the C header files and running them through a 
program that will automatically translate them to D modules:

http://www.digitalmars.com/d/htod.html

That page explains some of the syntactic differences and how to get it 
all going smoothly.