Re: mkoctfile

[Thomas Hoffmann]

> > I don't think anyone has yet done the work to make dynamically linked
> > functions work with Octave on Windows systems.  If this is not
> > correct, would someone who uses Windows and Octave and dynamically
> > linked functions please provide the details so that it can be made to
> > work by default in the Octave distributions?
> 
> I remember building .oct files on Windows after mucking around with the
> list of libraries to link with and so on, but beware that the size is 
> going to be *huge* even for a the smallest .oct file due to static 
> linking of all the Octave libraries. The solution is to build Octave 
> libraries as DLLs under windows, but that's much easier said that done. 
> I did at one point, way in the past, made *most* of the changes needed, 
> but it wasn't quite all there. The trouble with Windows DLLs is that you 
> have *explicitly* import/export DLL variables (the functions can be 
> transparently handled via import libraries), and that requires lots of 
> painstaking work when dealing with source base that wasn't designed for 
> it from the get go (which is most things written on and for Unix).

Wouldn't it be a good idea to look into the OS/2 port of Octave, which has
to fight with the same mechanism for dynamic linking as Windows and comes
with a working mkoctfile.cmd? Klaus Gebhardt has ported Octave in a way that
it consists of a bunch of DLLs and a rather small "main exe", IIRC.
Some conversation about a common strategy of modularisation under OS/2 and 
Windows would be a good thing, I think.

Regards,
Thomas.



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