RE: What is a DLL?
- Posted by Graeme <graemeburke at CROSSWINDS.NET> Feb 22, 2001
- 368 views
>So - >What is a DLL file and what does it do? DLL stands for "dynamic link library" In simple terms, a DLL is a file that contains pieces of code that perform individual tasks, but isn't really a program in it's own right. A program can link to a DLL and use the pieces of code (functions & procedures) to do things. An example of this would be a graphics engine that is housed in a DLL. If you are writing a game your program might check for keyboard input, determine where each object should be on the screen and then call a procedure from the DLL to display the picture(s) on the screen. The routines in the graphics engine will be fast ASM routines that are streamlined to do this very quickly (if it's a good engine). The windows API is also housed in DLLs (kernel32.dll, user32.dll etc...) A windows program calls routines these DLLs to do all of the windows specific stuff like creating windows and other objects. >And the questions of the week: >What is that darned fat.db file in my Windows (95 and 2000) - History or >Netscape-User-Cache folder? What opens it? What is it for? Why can't I >delete it? Is there a way to delete it? I have no idea. "fat" generally refers to the "file allocation table" that is on a disk, however I dont know what the specific file you're referring to does. If you really want to get rid of it, restart in ms-dos mode and type: cd [the directory] attrib -r -s -h fat.db del fat.db exit (to return to windows - if that dosn't work type "win") [the directory] is the dir where the file is i.e. C:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator\Cache or wherever you have netscape installed. This will work for just about anything. It's interesting to note, that I just deleted db.fat from an old NNav 3.01 folder, using windows, without any trouble. Why won't it let you? What's it saying? "Access Denied"? "The specified file is being use by windows"? Right-click on it and select properties. Is it read-only or system? We're starting to get pretty off-topic, but feel free to mail me privately if you're still having trouble. Graeme. BTW: >less-than novice questions that have nothing to do with Eudora - Eudora is a mail prog, I think you ment Euphoria