Dynamic Class Loading Idea

[Vladimir Panteleev]

On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:28:13 +0200, Craig Black <craigblack2 at cox.net> wrote:

> "Vladimir Panteleev" <thecybershadow at gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:op.t0741htdm02fvl at cybershadow...
>> On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:40:34 +0200, Craig Black <craigblack2 at cox.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>> I like DDL's approach, in which it acts as a run-time linker. It uses
>>>> relocation data in OBJ files to find address references and fix them
>>>> (thus
>>>> "relocating" the code for any memory address) when loading the
>>>> libraries.
>>>
>>> Does this relocation use function pointers?
>>
>> "Relocation data" is just a list of addresses which have pointers. I
>> didn't express myself correctly, relocation data isn't used to resolve
>> cross-module references. It is only used to "move" that code at a random
>> address. To do that, the linker/loader adds the address to which the code
>> is relocated to each DWORD the address of which is specified in the
>> relocation list.
>>
>> References are resolved by having a list of symbols, and each symbol
>> having an address of where in this module it's referenced. The
>> linker/loader then simply places the address of each symbol into the
>> referenced locations.
>>
>> Since this is done before any code in the module is executed, it should be
>> possible to implement on all platforms (except platforms where code and
>> data is strictly separated).
>>
>> --
>> Best regards,
>> Vladimir                          mailto:thecybershadow at gmail.com
>
> Thanks for the explanation.  So then modules can be loaded at run time, and
> this system effectively eliminates function pointers?

Yes, that's the goal and purpose of DDL.

-- 
Best regards,
 Vladimir                          mailto:thecybershadow at gmail.com