[Distutils] Distutilizing wxPython

[Robin Dunn]

> OK, I'll bite: what the heck *is* an import library, and why are they
> needed?  Are they produced by the compiler, the linker, or something
> else?  Are they needed to produce static libraries, shared libraries
> (DLLs), executables, or something else?

When you link together a DLL you also make an import library which defines
all the exported symbols in the DLL that can be imported into other code.  I
believe that it also defines how to find the symbol in the DLL, an offset or
ordinal or something like that.  When you are linking code that uses the DLL
you don't link with the DLL itself (like you do on Unix by linking with the
.so) but with the import library instead.

--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman
robin@AllDunn.com
http://wxPython.org     Java give you jitters?
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