Libraries: Difference between revisions
Corrected spellings.
(Grossly oversimplified description of types of libraries. Someone please correct.) |
(Corrected spellings.) |
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=Dynamically-linked Libraries=
Dynamically-linked libraries are libraries that are contained in a file separate from an application's primary executable, and are loaded at [[run time|run-time]]. This has the benefit of allowing multiple programs use of the same code both on disk and in memory, saving space. It also allows a program to load additional, optional or interchangeable portions of itself into memory at runtime.
On Windows, these files are known as, naturally enough, as '''Dynamically-Linked Libraries''', from which their file extension '''DLL''' is derived.
On UNIX-derived systems, these files are known as '''Shared Objects''', from which their file extension '''so''' is derived.
==Implicit vs Explicit linking==
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=Statically-linked Libraries=
Statically-linked libraries are combined with a program's code at [[compile-time]], their code and the program's code combined to form a single executable.
=Executable libraries=
Some languages can create a library that when used as a library does one thing; but has the ability to be run directly, where it will do some extra task using, but not limited to, functionality that it makes available as a library.
=See also=
* [[:Category:Solutions by Library]]
* [[Executable library]]
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