From: loki AT maison-otaku DOT net (Jeremy Blackman) Subject: Re: cygwin.dll 16 Jan 1997 21:24:29 -0800 Approved: cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Distribution: cygnus Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Sender: loki AT herne DOT dragoncat DOT net Original-To: "M.Carter" Original-cc: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.16.19970116123433.252f4572@scooter.gcal.ac.uk> Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com On Thu, 16 Jan 1997, M.Carter wrote: > At the risk of annoying someone ... > > I'd like to mention that I used Visual C++ to > write a simple 'hello world' > program for Windows 95. It was 17k long. I found that > the machine transported > to another machine running Windows 95 without the need for > distributing a dll, or any other paraphenalia. I will point out that, in the newer versions of Win95, Microsoft has included the Visual C/C++ DLLs in the main system installation...the equivalent of having cygwin.dll installed when you set up your OS. In addition. And also, if they didn't have a version of Win95 that had the DLLs installed when they set it up, many programs will install those DLL for you, as they use them as well. Note that any Visual Basic program requires VBRUNxxx.DLL where xxx is the version (e.g. 100 for 1.0, 200 for 2.0, etc.)...but many programs install this, so most machines already have these DLLs. Cygnus stuff has not been as widely distributed, so most machines don't already have the cygwin.dll file installed. Not saying this IS what happened, but making a point. Yes, it's possible to link in a library to a file, but from what I've seen (and what others on the list have said), so much of the cygnus DLL is devoted to supporting the other portions, to provide UNIX functionality, that it would be hard to link in only a minimal amount statically. > Can I please re-affirm the advantages of eliminating the dll : > - the distribution is easier to install. Remember - the user may > not be interested in the cygnus project - he just wants an > executable that works > - the binary is easier to execute For the program I compiled under gnu-win32, the user simply downloads a ZIP file. They unzip this, and run SETUP.EXE. THis prompts them for a distribution directory, set up uninstall, and installs not only my program, but the cygwin DLL if they don't already have it. This hardly seems a difficult install. I know some people complain about the number of DLLs that clutter up a system, but 1 DLL (compared to the many that, say, Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office will install) hardly seems worth complaining about. And what with uninstallshield and other such toolkits, it's easy to keep them clean and straightened up. --Jeremy - For help on using this list, send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".