Combine a Dll with EXE?

[Todd Wasson]

hello,

i realize this goes against the whole purpose of dll's, but is it
possible to combine a dll and an exe into one exe? i'm developing
something that will be sold in dll form, however, i'd like to
distribute a demo program written with pbdll 6.0 that shows the functionality
of the dll itself without passing out copies of the dll. is this possible?
or am i stuck with modifying the dll source code and pasting it into the
demo program's code?

is this link what i need?
http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ead.php?t=1989

thanks,



------------------
todd wasson
-------------
performance simulations
drag racing and top speed
prediction software
http://performancesimulations.com

[Fred Oxenby]

You probably need this, to do that...
http://www.collakesoftware.com/pebundle.htm

------------------
Fred
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>
http://www.oxenby.se

[Michael Mattias]

You might look at restructuring your code slightly to use conditional compiling :

%COMPILE_DEMO = true or false

#INCLUDE "DECLARE.BI"

#IF %COMPILE_DEMO
#COMPILE EXE

  Extra Code Needed to make an EXE, probably something like
  FUNCTION WinMain
  FUNCTION WndProc for test/demo window
#ELSE
#COMPILE DLL
   FUNCTION LibMain 
    ...
   END FUNCTION
#ENDIF

I have a couple of programs I wrote where I can create a test program (which is not unlike a demo) using this method.

It takes a little playing around with the order of the declarations, but it was time well spent.


MCM






[This message has been edited by Michael Mattias (edited May 14, 2001).]

[Jules Marchildon]

I once combined the WinLift DLL into my main EXE, of course I had the source
code.

I changed the DLL entry point to a regular function call...

'FUNCTION LibMain& (BYVAL DllInstance&, BYVAL Reason&, BYVAL Reserved&) EXPORT
FUNCTION InitMain(BYVAL Reason&) AS LONG
  
    Ret& = %TRUE
 
    IF Reason& = %TRUE THEN
 
'Comment this out-> hInst& = DllInstance& 
 
...etc

Then in the WinMain start up...

    '*Initialize Skin elements, DLL replacement
    CALL InitMain(%TRUE)

This worked simply enough.

Regards,
Jules

[Todd Wasson]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think I'll try the program Fred mentioned, as there are
so many functions in the Dll, it would be a lot of trouble to remove the EXPORT
keyword and keep two copies that have to both be changed while adding code to it. Thanks a lot
for the help


------------------
Todd Wasson
-------------
Performance Simulations
Drag Racing and Top Speed
Prediction Software
http://PerformanceSimulations.Com

[Michael Mattias]

You don't have to remove the word EXPORT when you compile to an EXE.

It hurts nothing to leave it in.

MCM

[Lance Edmonds]

True, however the exported sub/function names will be visible in the EXE image, so that may be a consideration, but not one that will affect compilation.

Personally, I prefer to use conditional compilation, since you can maintain a single source and produce an EXE or a DLL as required.



------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Todd Wasson]

So basically, I could just paste the DLL code into my demo EXE and remove
the #COMPILE DLL statement? I don't have to worry about the EXPORT statements
unless I want to prevent someone from seeing the functions?

Thanks,

------------------
Todd Wasson
-------------
Performance Simulations
Drag Racing and Top Speed
Prediction Software
http://PerformanceSimulations.Com

[Lance Edmonds]

Yes! MCM's post at the start of this thread shows how to do it (in pseudocode).

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>