New InstallShield: no more DLLs

Reuben Thomas rrt1001@cam.ac.uk
Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:45:23 +0000 (GMT)


I've put up a new InstallShield for GHC 4.08.1 (Windows edition). This no
longer contains DLLs and import libraries for the libraries, so you have to
use the compiler with -static.

I intend to stick to this scheme in future releases (probably replacing
-static with -dynamic), as GHC derives few benefits from DLLized libraries,
and a lot of disadvantages. Also, there is at present an unresolved and
deep-seated bug (possibly not even in GHC) that prevents some very simple
DLLized programs from working.

Users of DLLs need not despair: one important (and, to the best of my
knowledge, fully working) version of DLL building remains: you can still
build static DLLs, that is, DLLs in which all the code has been compiled
statically, so that all the necessary library code is linked into the DLL.
Hence, you can still build DLLs to be called from other languages, or to be
wrapped up as COM components, or whatever.

Finally, one nice side effect is that the size of the distribution is nearly
halved: it now weighs in at a little over 12Mb.

-- 
http://sc3d.org/rrt/ | violence, n.  bravery for cowards