Hi! I need help determining the feasibility of writing a wrapper around a DLL so that I can call it from a Linux machine, perhaps as a SO. I'm looking for either a member of this list that could contract with us for support, or pointers to a more appropriate place where I can search for such a person. If you're interested in learning more, please read on - otherwise, thanks for your time!
The DLL in question is one that interacts with call recording equipment in a telephone switch. Our customer has an incoming call center where they currently use windows machines on the desktops of the telephone agents. They're looking to replace these desktops with Linux machines, and are trying to convert to a 100% non-Microsoft shop. This DLL has five or six function calls that presumably communicates over the network with the switch.
My initial thought was that we have three choices of how to architect a solution:
1) Port the code to Linux. I eliminated this as a choice because we don't have the source code for the DLL. 2) Use some kind of RPC mechanism (COBRA, SOAP, etc.) to have the DLL running under windows on a server. This would work in principle, and apparently it is the preferred solution by the maker of the DLL. However, it violates our client's no-Microsoft-code mandate, and our customer has rejected this as a solution. 3) Write a wrapper to use the DLL running under WINE. This is what I am pursuing now.
I'm looking for someone who has done #3 for other DLLs, and understands the issues that might come up in getting a third party DLL to run under WINE without active support from the DLL's authors. I myself have used Linux quite extensively but have not had the opportunity to use WINE directly, so we will likely need some help in setting up our WINE environment. We've got funding to pursue this, so if you can show me that you've done something like this before, we will pay you to first do a feasibility analysis on the DLL in question, and then implement it.
Thanks!
John