Object Libraries
List of: Discussion Topic
Subjects: Building Applications
Contents: Application Development Manual

The source code for a component is built into object libraries for an application to link against. A component may have more than one library associated with it. The ACIS libraries may be grouped into two main categories:

Core Libraries Provide ACIS modeling functionality. Most components have at least one core library, but some components are for interface support only and do not have a core library.

Interface/Support Libraries Do not provide ACIS modeling functionality, but are simply for supporting an interface into ACIS, such as Scheme.

The core ACIS libraries are available as either static link libraries or shared (dynamic link) libraries. A static library means that the library's referenced object code becomes part of the application's executable. A shared library means that the library's object code does not become part of the application's executable (so the executable is smaller), but is loaded into memory at run-time instead.

Note A shared library is called a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) on some systems (e.g., Windows). When referring to a shared library in a non-platform-specific context, the Spatial documentation may use the term shared/DLL.

The top-level ACIS install directory contains a directory for each component of ACIS. No source code is allowed in the top-level or component directories. All source code is located in subdirectories of the component directories. Each component directory contains one subdirectory for each library that is shipped as part of the component. Some component directories may also contain other subdirectories that are not built into libraries.
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