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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
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Received on Mon Jul 10 2006 - 17:21:46 UTC