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Bart · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:04 pm Post subject: Writing a VDS-DLL in VDS?

Hi,

Is it possible to write a VDS-DLL in VDS? Because i need to write a DLL like program that can generate events and have functions and commands to control different external equipment, but needed to have only one main program because that has to be updated frequently on different machines with different equipment and so i don't have to worry what the controls for that equipment are because they are controlled by the DLL on that machine.

Bart

Hooligan · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject:

Hi Bart,

It sounds to me like what you want is a DSU. It.s sort of like a dll, but written entirely in VDS. A search of the forums on "dsu" should find you plenty of info on making them...

Hooligan

Bart · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:14 pm Post subject:

But as far as i understood is that a DSU compiled into the exe file, so i still need to compile for every different hardware setup a exe file and that is what i want to avoid.

jwfv · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:20 pm Post subject:

A DSU is a standalone file that you can reuse with as many executables as you want. So for instance, you might have 5 .exes running that are all calling functions from the same .dsu.

Skit3000 · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 7:05 pm Post subject:

You might try my Gateway DLL to simulate a VDS-DLL. Create one program which does the core functions and another one which acts like the GUI and use this DLL to call events. Smile

http://www.vdsworld.com/search.php?keywords=gateway

Bart · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:28 am Post subject:

jules · Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:51 pm Post subject:

Yes, a DSU is compiled into the EXE. It's more like a LIB or OBJ file in other languages, or a Delphi DCU.

It is not possible to create DLLs using VDS. VDS 6 will have the ability to create a number of different executable types, such as standalone runtime-free EXEs, console EXEs and NT Service EXEs, but the ability to create DLLs would have involved considerable extra work and it was deemed not worth the effort when compared to other things the time could be spent on.

jwfv · Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:10 am Post subject:

I think I misunderstood your original question. Yes, a dsu is included in the script at compilation time. I thought you just wanted a single place to put reusable functions, and then include that dsu in all your programs. Sorry if I confused the issue -

Bart · Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

Skit, i tried gateway.dll but it crashes sometimes for no reason, mostly when sending a lot of data trough it in a short period of time, is this a known problem?

Bart · Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject:

Skit3000 · Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject:

jules · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 10:18 am Post subject:

vdsalchemist · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:14 pm Post subject:

Jules & Skit,
There is an update to the Delphi extension template in the Articles section here at http://www.vdsworld.com/search.php?view_mode=fileinfo&file_id=6

However I doubt that the issue is anything to do with sending parameters. Most likely it is due to the size of the shared memory mappings that are being used in the Gateway.dll... You pobably need to limit the amount of data your sending or send memory addresses using the @addr() function in VDS. This way the data is not on the stack and is in heap memory. In most cases the stack for a single function is only 4096 characters. Keep your data below that and it will probably do ok. I am only speculating here and have not seen the source code of the DLL myself but if Skit used the code from a DLL that PGWare wrote then it should be compatible with VDS 5 since I remember him stating that all his DLL's were updated to work with VDS 5.

Skit3000 · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:05 pm Post subject:

I wrote it before VDS 5 was released and lost the source code afterwards... Crying or Very sad

Bart · Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:19 am Post subject: