Communicating with a DLL under Linux

[Grant Edwards]

On 2007-03-13, Mikael Olofsson <mikael at isy.liu.se> wrote:

> The gadget costs about 50 Euros. It's not a lot of money, but I would 
> not like to buy the thing if there is a substancial risk that I will not 
> be able to make it work on that computer. From what I've read on the 
> box, it assumes Windows (a number of versions), it includes a DLL to 
> communicate with it, and example code in VB (iirc). For the interested, 
> here's the gadget:
>
>     http://www.elfa.se/elfa-bin/dyndok.pl?lang=en&vat=0&dok=9001.htm
>
> I have been looking at ctypes, and from what I read, I should be able to 
> communicate with a DLL by using ctypes.

Only under Windows.

> It even sounds fairly easy, as long as I know what the DLL is
> supposed to do. I expect there to be some kind of manual for
> the DLL included in the box. Are DLLs universal, or are there
> different DLLs for Windows and Linux (I'm not a programmer, 
> remember)?

Yes.  Shared libraries (Called DLLs under Windows) are
different than shared libraries under Linux.

> If the vendor claims that the DLL is for Windows, is it
> reasonable to assume that it can be made to work under Linux

No.

> from Python, that is? Or is this perhaps completely out
> of the question?

It's probably out of the question.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I am NOT a nut....
                                  at               
                               visi.com