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Content-type: text/plain
I had written a module for NI PCI-GPIB card which dynamically loads
the "Gpib-32.dll". In their C interface, there was some global integer
variables, so, static loading of dll was not suitable.
By this module, a student wrote a program that controls Keithley
electrometer and Lakeshore temperature controller.
I spent a lot on conversion of C data types and data structures (have
almost no C programming experience).
Sometimes, C2cp package (from
http://www.zinnamturm.de/ ) was used,
another times Delphi wrapper units were used to understand and convert
the data types. ( By using this techniques, I was able to access the
procedures in SDL, FreeImage and Aerohech Dll's from BB )
If someone is interested, i can send the module/ sent to Component
Pascal Collections site as contribution.
Best regards,
- Necati.
On Mon, 2006-07-10 at 11:21 -0400, Wojtek Skulski wrote:
> I changed the topic to avoid confusing Eryk.
>
> On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Campbell, Robert D (SELEX) (UK Edinburgh) wrote:
>
> > AMD provide a C header file to define
> > the interfaces. Is there an automatic way
> > of translating these C header files into
> > BBox DLL interface modules?
>
> I asked this question to OMS long ago and I seem to recall they have some
> sort of interface generator for their internal use. But it was long ago
> and I do not remember. I never got hold of any such tool. I spent
> considerable time on trial-and-error. The last part of my PowerPoint
> presentation is devoted to this topic. I suppose my slides look extremely
> boring to an average BB user, but they become fascinating to someone who
> is just starting on this slippery road. I suggest you have a look.
>
> The header files are part of the problem. The run-time may be another
> part. I always succeded with my pedestrian approach, until one day I hit
> a snag with National Instruments DLLs. I just could not load the DLL
> to memory. I then realised that BB does not offer the diagnostic tools
> for such a case. All I could say was that the DLL did not load, and
> therefore the entire module tree above the DLL did not load either.
> All the buttons were gray and did not work because the code was not
> loaded.
>
> I did not know what to do. OMS sent me a very simple module which bypasses
> the entire BB runtime system. Using that module I determined that the
> DLL sometimes would load, and sometimes would not load. Then I used the
> Dependency Walker to find out that the National Instruments DLL loads
> about 30 other NI's DLLs. One of these refused to init properly. My
> collaborator who is fluent with Visual Studio debugger was able to watch
> the exact sequence of calls which BB issued to load the DLL. The sequence
> was weird and neither I nor OMS could make sense of it. The same guy
> confirmed that Visual Basic also saw the problem, so we could shift the
> blame away from BB.
>
> At the end it turned out that National Instruments DLL system, which
> is composed of several dozens DLLs, was not installed properly. Some
> versions were inconsistent with some other versions. One of their DLLs
> was overzelaous in its checks and refused to init properly, what
> threw off the entire init chain. The end result was that the top-level
> DLL refused to load. National Instruments' software is notorious for
> this kind of problems.
>
> Lessons learned, which may or may not be useful to you.
>
> 1. Avoid National Instruments. (Impossible, they have good hardware.)
>
> 2. In case of problems:
>
> 2.1 Use other software to load and test the DLLs. For example, Visual Basic.
>
> 2.2. Have someone handy who is fluent with Visual Studio debugger.
>
> 2.3. Study the low-level BB modules which load the DLLs via API calls.
>
> 2.4. Read M$ documentation concerning the DLL loading process.
>
> 3. In case of no problems:
>
> 3.1 Consider yourself lucky.
>
> Hope it helps, -- W.
>
> --- BlackBox
> --- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy>
--- BlackBox
--- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy
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Received on Mon Jul 10 2006 - 19:47:32 UTC