LibTiff Mailing List
TIFF and LibTiff Mailing List Archive
February 2010
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Previous by Thread
Next by Thread
Previous by Date
Next by Date
Contact
The TIFF Mailing List Homepage
This list is run by Frank Warmerdam
Archive maintained by AWare Systems
Thread
2010.02.18 15:59 "Re: OT: Visual C++ runtimes (was: Using libtiff in Visual C++ 6.0)", by Edward Lam2010.02.16 21:43 "Re: Using libtiff in Visual C++ 6.0", by <jcupitt@gmail.com>
On 16 February 2010 17:40, Kevin Myers <kmyers1@clearwire.net> wrote: > So, you're saying that he can't (easily?) link to a libtiff DLL that has > been built using GCC from an application that will be built using MSVC? I used to think that linking on *nix systems could get a little hairy, but it seems like it's fairly straightforward compared to Windows. My understanding of the issue (I'm not a Windows person, so I may not have this straight) is that things like mingw (ie. a gcc derivative that targets Windows) produce DLLs that are linked against MSVCRT.DLL, the standard C runtime that is present (in some form) on all Windows machines since win95. They use this runtime for two reasons: 1) it's everywhere, so installation of binaries which link against this is easy and 2) because you don't need to distribute and install a runtime, there are no licensing issues to consider. MSVC 6.0 also uses this runtime, so projects built with this compiler should work with the libtiff DLLs. Sadly, later MSVC versions use a different runtime, usually called msvcrt70.dll, or some higher number. MS changed the runtime name because the runtime doesn't just supply functions like malloc, printf and friends, it also supplies basic parts of C++, like the functions supporting exception handling. MSVC7 and later have a new exception system that breaks binary compatibility. So ... versions of MSVC later than 6.0 will be unable to link against the libtiff DLLs. There is a workaround though. The Windows Driver Development Kit includes a compiler which is able to link against he old MSVCRT and which therefore should be able to use the libtiff DLLs. I think this blog post is supposed to be the definitive explanation of this idea: http://kobyk.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/dynamically-linking-with-msvcrtdll-using-visual-c-2005/ However as Bob says this is probably not worth the candle. You should build your whole project with one compiler and not rely too strongly on binary compatibility between compiler versions. John