How do dll's work?

[tnek]

Noob here. I come from an old mainframe environment and I don't understand what I am supposed to do with a dll. I have been searching the forums - where do I put the dll? does it need to be registered (and how)? Most of all - I think I need a good link explaining how they work in autoit.

[JohnOne]

Where they have to be and how you use them is entirely dependent on a particular dll.

You would need to look in the documentation for it, however there is an example for

use in the helpfile for DllCall()

[tnek]

Where they have to be and how you use them is entirely dependent on a particular dll.

You would need to look in the documentation for it, however there is an example for

use in the helpfile for DllCall()

I am trying to incorporate Martin's Serial Port /COM Port UDF into a script on a Win7 machine to replace some functionality on our legacy system.

[JohnOne]

I would imagine all the functions are covered in martins UDF.

I dll file is just executable code in the form of a library (I think the one the script uses is written in C/C++)

You pass the information the library function needs into it with dllcall function and the function you called in the dll does the work, and optionally returns a parameter in index 0 of the resulting array.

[martin]

I am trying to incorporate Martin's Serial Port /COM Port UDF into a script on a Win7 machine to replace some functionality on our legacy system.

The dll doesn't need to be registered. If it isn't saved in the csript directory you can save it wherever you want and use the function _CommSetDllPath.

After that you don't ned to worry about how to use the dll because that is all dealt with by the udf.

The example I supply is enough to get people started usually, though I'm forever telling myself I must write a better one, but at the moment it isn't isn't going to happen.

If you have particular questions about the udf or dll then it might be better to post them in the thread for the UDF in example scripts.

If you recently downloaded from the link there then you might have got a faulty UDF as I had a typo in V2.88. Latest (V2.89) was uploaded a few minutes ago to correct that.

[tnek]

I dropped the dll into c:Windows and used _CommSetDllPath. It is working now. Thanks for your patience.

[Thornhunt]

an old friend said to me, a dll is like the fridge when your making a toast.

you have the bread and the toaster ready, but you have to call into the fridge to get the butter