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Microsoft to End DLL Confusion

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the libraries-of-hell dept.

MankyD writes "ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft is attempting to do away with DLL version conflicts in its next version of Windows with a technology it calls 'Strong Binding'. When new programs attempt to overwrite old versions of DLL's, the Strong Binding will index the DLL's and allow the programs to reference them by a unique ID, rather than by file name. Hopefully it will prevent a new program from breaking an old one. I would think this might add to DLL clutter however."

3 of 630 comments (clear)

  1. Auto-DLL Managment? by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sounds like a great idea. While there will be more DLLs in the registry, at least each and every program will have it's "own" DLL and can't be broken. Although I wonder if the software will default to the newest DLL and then go back if it doesn't function correctly.

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    1. Re:Auto-DLL Managment? by n3k5 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      ... at least each and every program will have it's "own" DLL ...
      Ah, yes, what a wonderful idea; let each and every program have its own DLLs, at the mere cost of rendering the whole DLL system totally useless.

      You see, if you just wanted to split your executable code over several files for one reason or another, you could include DLLs with your program (in its own directory) ever since. Those wouldn't ever be changed by Windows, but this has nothing to do with the registry. The whole idea behind registered DLLs that reside in a centralised place is that you have shared libraries, that you don't have to store code used by several programs in multiple places, but only once, where you can do easy updates.

      However, now that there are so many versions of Windows out there, Microsoft is experiencing compatibility issues with DLLs and they're doing something about it. I'm not familiar with the details of their solution and don't want to say it's a bad one at all. But your ideas are a little too extreme; saving one copy of a DLL per program is just absurd.
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  2. Re:DLL vs static libs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It is not only for preserving disk space.

    It also preserves ram by sharing common code between different applications.

    It also makes upgrades and bugfixes easier (think openssl, for example).