Shared Object/DLL Management

System-dependent library loading routines. More...

Classes
struct	SDL::SharedObjectBase
	An opaque datatype that represents a loaded shared object. More...
struct	SDL::SharedObjectRef
	Handle to a non owned sharedObject. More...
struct	SDL::SharedObject
	Handle to an owned sharedObject. More...

Detailed Description

Shared objects are code that is programmatically loadable at runtime. Windows calls these "DLLs", Linux calls them "shared libraries", etc.

To use them, build such a library, then call SDL_LoadObject() on it. Once loaded, you can use SDL_LoadFunction() on that object to find the address of its exported symbols. When done with the object, call SDL_UnloadObject() to dispose of it.

Some things to keep in mind:

• These functions only work on C function names. Other languages may have name mangling and intrinsic language support that varies from compiler to compiler.
• Make sure you declare your function pointers with the same calling convention as the actual library function. Your code will crash mysteriously if you do not do this.
• Avoid namespace collisions. If you load a symbol from the library, it is not defined whether or not it goes into the global symbol namespace for the application. If it does and it conflicts with symbols in your code or other shared libraries, you will not get the results you expect. :)
• Once a library is unloaded, all pointers into it obtained through SDL_LoadFunction() become invalid, even if the library is later reloaded. Don't unload a library if you plan to use these pointers in the future. Notably: beware of giving one of these pointers to atexit(), since it may call that pointer after the library unloads.