[Lazarus] LCL and DLLs, initializing the widget set safely?

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 09:33:32 +0100
"Gerard N/A" <gerardusmercator at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 11:39 PM, Marco Alvarado <cronodragon at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm really happy to inform that I solved the bug, and now I have a
> > working version of LCL 0.9.28.2 in DLL. It seems the fix might not be
> > difficult for someone who understands the LCL's internals. I'll
> > explain what I did hoping someone could work on it.
> >
> 
> Am I wrong or this cannot be really fixed unless a Delphi-like package
> system is implemented?

Delphi like packages makes many things easier like calling the
initialization/finalization sections in the right order and only once.
You can emulate this.
The most important thing is sharing the VMTs and global variables.
This can not be emulated.
The shared VMTs and global variables are needed, when you
want to use a LCL form of a DLL in a LCL application.

I didn't try, but it should be possible to put an LCL application into
a dynamic lib on all platforms and accessing it only via pointers.
And with various hacks it is possible to share more.

The main problem is, that the guys knowing the compiler and linker
issues, thinks that the disadvantages of packages outweighs the
advantages, so it is not worth implementing.


Mattias