i am not a new c++''er, but i have never programmed with dlls before. could someone tell me the relevence of a DLL, how it works, etc. If there is a tutorial on how to program them, could someone give me a pointer? Also, how do you make EXE files smaller? if you have a 200Mb EXE, it begins to slow down . thanks Arbz ps, i use VC++ 6

If you have a 200 meg exe, you''re doing something wrong.

DLLs do two things:
1) Share code between applications. Let''s say you have a collection of file manipulation functions. You could put that into a DLL and then have several different applications use that.

2) Allow dynamic linking. Actually, that''s what the first DL of DLL means. In Quake2, there is a separate DLL for each type of rendering (software, opengl, glide(?)). At runtime the program can select which one to use.

3) I know, I said only two. The other sorta reason would be dynamic updates. Instead of sending a 200 meg exe to a customer when you fix a bug, you can send just the DLL that contains the code you fixed.

Take care,
Bill