Native Dll x Built-in Dll - why everything doesn't work with native dlls

[Leonardo Luiz Padovani da Mata]

Hello all!!

My name is Leonardo, and i'm working in a project that will migrate
thousands of windows NT4 machines to Linux.
In this project we will do some wine impplementations, if needed.

The apps that we are testing is some VB6/5 apps and DataBase client apps.
None of the apps executed correctly. So we will impplement wine.

I need to know why when we use Native DLL these apps doesn't work.
How does wine open the native dll files?
Where are the doc about that?

thanks.

[Uwe Bonnes]

> > > > > "Leonardo" == Leonardo Luiz Padovani da Mata  writes:

Leonardo> Hello all!!  My name is Leonardo, and i'm working in a project
    Leonardo> that will migrate thousands of windows NT4 machines to Linux.
    Leonardo> In this project we will do some wine impplementations, if
    Leonardo> needed.

Leonardo> The apps that we are testing is some VB6/5 apps and DataBase
    Leonardo> client apps.  None of the apps executed correctly. So we will
    Leonardo> impplement wine.

Leonardo> I need to know why when we use Native DLL these apps doesn't
    Leonardo> work.  How does wine open the native dll files?  Where are the
    Leonardo> doc about that?

High level DLLs (like the visual basic dlls) call into low level dlls, like
kernel32.dll. If there are bugs in the wine implementation of these dlls,
errors will happen, even when a native high level dll is uses.

With VB6/5, most errors happen around Ole/Com, as wine still needs a long
way in that area. Running with the appropriate native DLLs may circumvent
the problem. For migrating, using the native dlls is not a (legal) option
however.

Native dlls are opened by loading the dll, when the PE header request the
dll, just like windows does. Learn the basics from reading low level windows
books, and then understand what wine does in what way by reading the wine
source and asking good questions on the list. Asking "Where are the doc
about that?" is normally not considered a good question, as you don't show
what effort you did yourself to solve that problem.

Bye

[Marcelo Duarte]

I have notified a recent regression in loading native dlls from database
programs like VFP3. I believe that VB work the same way.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Uwe Bonnes" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: Native Dll x Built-in Dll - why everything doesn't work with
native dlls
> > > > > > "Leonardo" == Leonardo Luiz Padovani da Mata

writes:
> Leonardo> Hello all!!  My name is Leonardo, and i'm working in a

project
> Leonardo> that will migrate thousands of windows NT4 machines to

Linux.
> Leonardo> In this project we will do some wine impplementations, if
> Leonardo> needed.
>
> Leonardo> The apps that we are testing is some VB6/5 apps and DataBase
> Leonardo> client apps.  None of the apps executed correctly. So we

will
> Leonardo> impplement wine.
>
> Leonardo> I need to know why when we use Native DLL these apps doesn't
> Leonardo> work.  How does wine open the native dll files?  Where are

the
> Leonardo> doc about that?
>
> High level DLLs (like the visual basic dlls) call into low level dlls,

like
> kernel32.dll. If there are bugs in the wine implementation of these dlls,
> errors will happen, even when a native high level dll is uses.
>
> With VB6/5, most errors happen around Ole/Com, as wine still needs a long
> way in that area. Running with the appropriate native DLLs may circumvent
> the problem. For migrating, using the native dlls is not a (legal) option
> however.
>
> Native dlls are opened by loading the dll, when the PE header request the
> dll, just like windows does. Learn the basics from reading low level

windows
> books, and then understand what wine does in what way by reading the wine
> source and asking good questions on the list. Asking "Where are the doc
> about that?" is normally not considered a good question, as you don't show
> what effort you did yourself to solve that problem.
> Bye
>
> Uwe Bonnes                [e-mail]
>
> Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
> --------- Tel. [phone] -------- Fax. [phone] ----------

[Mike Hearn]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 18:27:55 +0100, Sir Uwe Bonnes scribed thus:
> With VB6/5, most errors happen around Ole/Com, as wine still needs a long
> way in that area. Running with the appropriate native DLLs may circumvent
> the problem. For migrating, using the native dlls is not a (legal) option
> however.

IIRC it is as long as you have a Windows license for that machine. If they
are migrating, presumably their old licenses don't self-destruct, so it
should be OK as long as they keep a 1<->1 mapping between the machines.