newbie critical question

W

wlmparker

i have a newbie dumb question
what kind of files are usually used as extrenal libraries for building
a c++ program ?
does "external libraries" usually mean .dll files, is there any other
types? at what point of the build process are they refered to and what
is their role?
and last how to tell the conpiler where to find them?
the reason im asking this is that, i've been learning c++ programming
for a while now
but i have never used an "extrenal library" just c++'s standard
libraries.i was using borland and now i started using
comand line gcc for compiling but with all the compiler and linker
options i am lost.
i got a couple of questions left but i'll save them for the next
episode of "dumb meets c++".

thanks
 
C

Carlos Moreno

i have a newbie dumb question
what kind of files are usually used as extrenal libraries for building
a c++ program ?

External library is an implementation detail --- the C++ language does
not say anything about it.

They can be implemented as .DLL files, as .LIB files (on the Windows
world), or .so and .a files on the Unix/Linux world. They can also
come in the form of source code that you compile together with your
application.

They could also come in whatever other custom form, if we're talking
libraries that come with some Development IDE.
next
episode of "dumb meets c++".

Despite my nature of a teacher that would normally require me to
find this completely wrong, self-beating, and, well, wrong, I have
to tell you that this is *far more brilliant* than the "____ for
Dummies" ... Good theme for books called "Dumb meets ____".
Absolutely brilliant!! :)

Carlos
 
W

W. J. La Cholter

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @k78g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
i have a newbie dumb question
what kind of files are usually used as extrenal libraries for building
a c++ program ?
does "external libraries" usually mean .dll files, is there any other
types? at what point of the build process are they refered to and what
is their role?
and last how to tell the conpiler where to find them?
the reason im asking this is that, i've been learning c++ programming
for a while now
but i have never used an "extrenal library" just c++'s standard
libraries.i was using borland and now i started using
comand line gcc for compiling but with all the compiler and linker
options i am lost.
i got a couple of questions left but i'll save them for the next
episode of "dumb meets c++".

This is a very compiler/OS-specific question. On Windows, you usually
link against .lib files regardless of whether you're using a DLL. If
you use DLLs, there's an "import library." With gcc on Windows, I'm
not sure what kinds of fancy stuff Cygwin does. On Linux, gcc links
...a files for static builds and .so files for shared-object (like DLL
builds).

The compiler has standard places to look, again dependent on the
environment. Microsoft and Linux have standard environment variables.
Borland probably plays nice with Microsoft. There are command-line
options (ultimately) that allow explicit additional locations.

For the details for your specific configuration, check the compiler
documentation.
 

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