As you know, a Paradox "application" consists of many parts: scripts,
forms, reports, and libraries. What you may not know is that most of these
are actually Windows DLLs. This means that, courtesy of Windows, they are
neatly self-contained and inherently shareable.

But independence, as any new kid in college will tell you, does have its
drawbacks. How can you enable the various independent forms to share
information easily? The answer is: libraries.

A library (.LSL, .LDL) is a unit that contains only executable (ObjectPAL)
code. It also contains its own set of global variables. Any form(s) in
your Windows session can open the same library at the same time, and when
they do so, they all access a single common /instance/ of that library.
Thus, the same instance-data: the same global variables.

Now, there's unfortunately no way for a form to _directly_ access a
library's variables, but you can provide a pair of /methods/ to do so...

assume:
var
globals DynArray[] AnyType
endVar

Now:
method getValue(key String) AnyType
return globals[key]
endMethod
and:
method setValue(key String, toValue AnyType)
globals[key] = toValue
endMethod

A library is a great place to put "most of your application," because not
only does it allow a single copy of the code to be shared, it also allows
all kinds of common data to be kept there.

There's only one caveat: the library must not be closed, even for a moment.
One way to do that is to have a "main menu" form open the library, and then
for the form to remain open throughout the life of the application.

Mike
<<
What you may not know is that most of these are actually Windows DLLs.
IMO, that's an old myth. When I asked Dan Alder about this a couple of years
ago, he said, forms, and libraries have the structure of a DLL, but they
aren't really DLLs.



--
Bertil Isberg - CTECH
Paradox buglist:
online: http://web.comhem.se/~u82608896/

"Mike Robinson" <info (AT) sundialservices (DOT) com> skrev i meddelandet
news:43e24ed2 (AT) pnews (DOT) thedbcommunity.com...

Bertil Isberg wrote:
They do show up as loaded modules. Paradox is using the memory management
capabilities of Windows, although the contents of the DLL are basically
employed as a non-executable /resource/ ...

----
ChimneySweep(R): F-A-A-ST table repair at a click of the mouse!
http://www.sundialservices.com/products/chimneysweep

"Mike Robinson" <info (AT) sundialservices (DOT) com> wrote


Who is Mike Robinson?

Mike,

Have you tried storing graphic images in a Library (as in DLL'ss) which can
be shared with Forms?



--
....
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·-> rodney

directly extracted from the dll with api calls.
But with win XP they don't. You have to extract them to hard disk first and
use readFromFile.
IMHO, the reason is that paradox can not handle 32 bit graphics and the api
calls handle the graphics - bitmaps as 32 bit graphics in XP although they
are stored as max. 24 bits in the dll. Extracting to hard disk can force
the bitmap to be max. 24 bit.

Jan

Jan,

If the Image file is already stored in a Paradox Object (such as a Paradox
Library), then there won't be any further resolution degradation.

I found a way to store Image files in a Paradox Library and call them into
one or more Form(s) Graphic objects. Very much like using a DLL.
)



--
....
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·-> rodney

"Jean Friedberg" <jfriedberg (AT) mycomcast (DOT) com> wrote

Mike *is* Sundial..


--
Steven Green - Waldorf Maryland USA

Diamond Software Group
http://www.diamondsg.com/main.htm
Paradox Support & Sales - Corel CTech Paradox

Diamond Sports Gems
http://www.diamondsg.com/gemsmain.htm
Sports Memorabilia and Trading Cards

Steven Green wrote:

Well, not exactly anymore, but the original author of ChimneySweep, well,
yes...


----
ChimneySweep(R): F-A-A-ST table repair at a click of the mouse!
http://www.sundialservices.com/products/chimneysweep

Rodney,


Interesting !
For 'classic' resource only dll, I create a .rc script then with rc.exe I
create a .res file. This .res file then is added to a .dll delphi project.
I must admit that I don't see how to add this .res file to a paradox library.
Perhaps you are willing to share your knowledge to do so?

Jan