On Monday, 16 March 2015 at 09:02:20 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
On 3/16/2015 5:07 PM, ninja wrote:
3. Improve Windows support. Include
http://www.dsource.org/projects/bindings/wiki/WindowsApi. The
fact that D needs Visual Studio for 64bit apps in 2015 is a
shame.
Including the WindowsAPI won't change this. D uses the MS
toolchain to generate the final binaries.
The WindowsAPI static linking model is obsolete. Since the usage
of new Windows API Sets, a dynamic linking model integrated in
the language is needed
(https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh802935%28v=vs.85%29.aspx)
Something similar with the external directive from Delphi ->
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/XE6/en/Procedures_and_Functions
So instead of writing:
extern(Windows) DWORD GetVersion(),
we can write:
extern(Windows, "api-ms-win-core-sysinfo-l1-2-1.dll", [optional
funcname]) DWORD GetVersion() or
extern(Windows, "kernel32.dll") DWORD GetVersion() for older
Windows versions (<8).
I know probably a mixin will partially solve this, but this will
save some important boilerplate code (just look at DerelictOrg
bindings, thousands LOC just to load some functions from a dll).