Dll support: testers needed

[Dylan Graham]

On Tuesday, 9 January 2018 at 08:10:56 UTC, Benjamin Thaut wrote:
> Am 09.01.2018 um 05:19 schrieb Dylan Graham:
>> It's pretty basic but I'm glad it works. I'll try doing 
>> something more advanced.
>
> Hi Dylan,
>
> I'm glad that it works for you. I'm curios though, why are you 
> using an import library for your plugin? Normally plugins are 
> build without and import library (the -L/IMPLIB parameter) and 
> then loaded dynamically through LoadLibrary by your main 
> executable.

In all honesty, I'm not sure. I saw the instructions on your 
website and just adapted it.

Also, please excuse me, I'm fairly new to compiling native 
programs. I've been using DUB this entire time.

With the common library (plugin base) DLL don't I need to 
generate a .lib for plugin implementations to compile/link 
against?

> This way you can add/remove plugins without the need to 
> recompile your main executable. Usually such plugin systems are 
> done like this:
>
> You have some common library that defines shared functionality 
> and the base interfaces such as a Plugin base class or Plugin 
> interface. This common library is build into a dll with import 
> library.
>
> You have one ore multiple plugins that link against the common 
> library and implement the plugin interface / plugin base class. 
> Each of these plugins provides a function "getPluginImpl" or 
> something along the lines which can be used to get an instance 
> of the Plugin implementation.

Check. I'm doing that.

> You have the main executable, which links against the common 
> library. It dynamically loads the plugin.dlls and calls the 
> getPluginImpl method on them to retrieve the implementation. No 
> import library involved here.

I'm doing that but the getPluginImpl call is done in the common 
library. The executable is only a bootstrap.

> What your doing is also a valid use case. It is usually done 
> when link times get to long or if you want to have clean 
> interface between the different subsystems in your application. 
> Your codebase is usually split into multiple dlls each with a 
> import library which are then all used by the main executable.

I am doing that. I don't need to recompile anything. I can add as 
many plugin implementations without recompiling the common 
library/executable.