MMBDLL
copyright © 2002-2003 Squash Productions
Introduction

 

It is possible to use functions from other DLL files, as long as you know the declarations to access the functions. The developer of the DLL must provide a detailed set of documentation, telling other developers how to create a declaration for the functions contained within that DLL.

What MMBDLL does is allows users to access these functions and send and receive information from them, this means that you have control over other DLL’s (including the winapi) and can interact with them, making MMB much more powerful that it once was.

But what are DLL's?

DLL stands for Dynamic-Link-Library. A DLL is a file containing executable code, like an EXE or COM file. Instead of containing a complete program, a DLL contains functions that can be used by other running programs. These functions might contain code to provide services not built into Windows, for example the ability to perform some kind of data compression. A Windows program would use these functions after it begins executing. It does this by opening the DLL file and calling functions from it. The programmer must already know what these functions are when the program's code is written.

Each DLL has its own Application Programming Interface (API) that specifies how to make calls to its functions, and in fact, Windows APIs are functions within DLLs that are supplied with Windows.

Windows APIs are the function calls that are the fundamental building blocks of Windows programming. Although the term API actually refers to the complete set of function calls, the term API is also often applied to just a single defined function call of the entire API. So it is often said, "I made an API call," or, "I want my program to call an API that does such and such..."

Any time you use any Windows program at all, and in fact each and every time you load Windows, many API calls are made. There are API calls that manage memory, create and destroy windows, read keyboard and mouse actions, draw graphics, and much more.

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