| WINE/WINDOWS DLLS |
| |
| |
| This document mainly deals with the status of current DLL support by |
| Wine. The Wine ini file currently supports settings to change the |
| load order of DLLs. The load order depends on several issues, which |
| results in different settings for various DLLs. |
| |
| |
| Pros of Native DLLs |
| ------------------- |
| |
| Native DLLs of course guarantee 100% compatibility for routines they |
| implement. For example, using the native USER DLL would maintain a |
| virtually perfect and Windows 95-like look for window borders, dialog |
| controls, and so on. Using the built-in WINE version of this library, |
| on the other hand, would produce a display that does not precisely |
| mimic that of Windows 95. Such subtle differences can be engendered |
| in other important DLLs, such as the common controls library COMMCTRL |
| or the common dialogs library COMMDLG, when built-in WINE DLLs outrank |
| other types in load order. |
| |
| More significant, less aesthetically-oriented problems can result if |
| the built-in WINE version of the SHELL DLL is loaded before the native |
| version of this library. SHELL contains routines such as those used by |
| installer utilities to create desktop shortcuts. Some installers might |
| fail when using WINE's built-in SHELL. |
| |
| Cons of Native DLLs |
| ------------------- |
| |
| Not every application performs better under native DLLs. If a library |
| tries to access features of the rest of the system that are not fully |
| implemented in Wine, the native DLL might work much worse than the |
| corresponding built-in one, if at all. For example, the native Windows |
| GDI library must be paired with a Windows display driver, which of |
| course is not present under Intel Unix and WINE. |
| |
| Finally, occassionally built-in WINE DLLs implement more features than |
| the corresponding native Windows DLLs. Probably the most important |
| example of such behavior is the integration of Wine with X provided by |
| WINE's built-in USER DLL. Should the native Windows USER library take |
| load-order precedence, such features as the ability to use the |
| clipboard or drag-and- drop between Wine windows and X windows will be |
| lost. |
| |
| Deciding Between Native and Built-In DLLs |
| ----------------------------------------- |
| |
| Clearly, there is no one rule-of-thumb regarding which load-order to |
| use. So, you must become familiar with: |
| * what specific DLLs do |
| * which other DLLs or features a given library interacts with |
| and use this information to make a case-by-case decision. |
| |
| Load Order for DLLs |
| ------------------- |
| |
| Using the DLL sections from the wine configuration file, the load |
| order can be tweaked to a high degree. In general it is advised not to |
| change the settings of the configuration file. The default |
| configuration specifies the right load order for the most important |
| DLLs. |
| |
| The default load order follows this algorithm: for all DLLs which have |
| a fully-functional Wine implementation, or where the native DLL is |
| known not to work, the built-in library will be loaded first. In all |
| other cases, the native DLL takes load-order precedence. |
| |
| The DefaultLoadOrder from the [DllDefaults] section specifies for all |
| DLLs which version to try first. See manpage for explanation of the |
| arguments. |
| |
| The [DllOverrides] section deals with DLLs, which need a |
| different-from-default treatment. |
| |
| The [DllPairs] section is for DLLs, which must be loaded in pairs. In |
| general, these are DLLs for either 16-bit or 32-bit applications. In |
| most cases in Windows, the 32-bit version cannot be used without its |
| 16-bit counterpart. For WINE, it is customary that the 16-bit |
| implementations rely on the 32-bit implementations and cast the |
| results back to 16-bit arguments. Changing anything in this section is |
| bound to result in errors. |
| |
| For the future, Wine implemetation of Windows DLL seems to head |
| towards unifying the 16 and 32 bit DLLs wherever possible, resulting |
| in larger DLLs. They are stored in the dlls/ subdirectory using the |
| 16-bit name. For large DLLs, a split might be discussed. |
| |
| |
| Understanding What DLLs Do |
| -------------------------- |
| |
| The following list briefly describes each of the DLLs commonly found |
| in Windows whose load order may be modified during the configuration |
| and compilation of WINE. |
| |
| (See also ./DEVELOPER-HINTS or the dlls/ subdirectory to see which |
| DLLs are currently being rewritten for wine) |
| |
| ADVAPI32.DLL: 32-bit application advanced programming interfaces |
| like crypto, systeminfo, security and eventlogging |
| AVIFILE.DLL: 32-bit application programming interfaces for the |
| Audio Video Interleave (AVI) Windows-specific |
| Microsoft audio-video standard |
| COMMCTRL.DLL: 16-bit common controls |
| COMCTL32.DLL: 32-bit common controls |
| COMDLG32.DLL: 32-bit common dialogs |
| COMMDLG.DLL: 16-bit common dialogs |
| COMPOBJ.DLL: OLE 16- and 32-bit compatibility libraries |
| CRTDLL.DLL: Microsoft C runtime |
| DCIMAN.DLL: 16-bit |
| DCIMAN32.DLL: 32-bit display controls |
| DDEML.DLL: DDE messaging |
| D3D*.DLL DirectX/Direct3D drawing libraries |
| DDRAW.DLL: DirectX drawing libraries |
| DINPUT.DLL: DirectX input libraries |
| DISPLAY.DLL: Display libraries |
| DPLAY.DLL, DPLAYX.DLL: DirectX playback libraries |
| DSOUND.DLL: DirectX audio libraries |
| GDI.DLL: 16-bit graphics driver interface |
| GDI32.DLL: 32-bit graphics driver interface |
| IMAGEHLP.DLL: 32-bit IMM API helper libraries (for PE-executables) |
| IMM32.DLL: 32-bit IMM API |
| IMGUTIL.DLL: |
| KERNEL32.DLL 32-bit kernel DLL |
| KEYBOARD.DLL: Keyboard drivers |
| LZ32.DLL: 32-bit Lempel-Ziv or LZ file compression |
| used by the installshields (???). |
| LZEXPAND.DLL: LZ file expansion; needed for Windows Setup |
| MMSYSTEM.DLL: Core of the Windows multimedia system |
| MOUSE.DLL: Mouse drivers |
| MPR.DLL: 32-bit Windows network interface |
| MSACM.DLL: Core of the Addressed Call Mode or ACM system |
| MSACM32.DLL: Core of the 32-bit ACM system |
| Audio Compression Manager ??? |
| MSNET32.DLL 32-bit network APIs |
| MSVFW32.DLL: 32-bit Windows video system |
| MSVIDEO.DLL: 16-bit Windows video system |
| OLE2.DLL: OLE 2.0 libraries |
| OLE32.DLL: 32-bit OLE 2.0 components |
| OLE2CONV.DLL: Import filter for graphics files |
| OLE2DISP.DLL, OLE2NLS.DLL: OLE 2.1 16- and 32-bit interoperability |
| OLE2PROX.DLL: Proxy server for OLE 2.0 |
| OLE2THK.DLL: Thunking for OLE 2.0 |
| OLEAUT32.DLL 32-bit OLE 2.0 automation |
| OLECLI.DLL: 16-bit OLE client |
| OLECLI32.DLL: 32-bit OLE client |
| OLEDLG.DLL: OLE 2.0 user interface support |
| OLESVR.DLL: 16-bit OLE server libraries |
| OLESVR32.DLL: 32-bit OLE server libraries |
| PSAPI.DLL: Proces Status API libraries |
| RASAPI16.DLL: 16-bit Remote Access Services libraries |
| RASAPI32.DLL: 32-bit Remote Access Services libraries |
| SHELL.DLL: 16-bit Windows shell used by Setup |
| SHELL32.DLL: 32-bit Windows shell (COM object?) |
| TAPI/TAPI32/TAPIADDR: Telephone API (for Modems) |
| W32SKRNL: Win32s Kernel ? (not in use for Win95 and up!) |
| WIN32S16.DLL: Application compatibility for Win32s |
| WIN87EM.DLL: 80387 math-emulation libraries |
| WINASPI.DLL: Advanced SCSI Peripheral Interface or ASPI libraries |
| WINDEBUG.DLL Windows debugger |
| WINMM.DLL: Libraries for multimedia thunking |
| WING.DLL: Libraries required to "draw" graphics |
| WINSOCK.DLL: Sockets APIs |
| WINSPOOL.DLL: Print spooler libraries |
| WNASPI32.DLL: 32-bit ASPI libraries |
| WSOCK32.DLL: 32-bit sockets APIs |
| |
| |
| Credits |
| ------- |
| |
| Based upon various messages on wine-devel especially by Ulrich Weigand. |
| Adapted by Michele Petrovski and Klaas van Gend. |
