Dynamic library generation

The Eiffel compiler offers the possibility to generate a dynamic shared library based on the system.

Thanks to this dynamic library, it is possible to call Eiffel features from a C program, by using the real names of the features.

In other words, the user can generate a DLL (*.dll) using features of the system on windows, and/or a shared library (*.so) on Unix.

For that, the user has first to describe what he wants to export in his dynamic library. This is done via a definition file (*.def), which specifies what features should be exported. A wizard helps build the definition file, which makes this step very intuitive. The second step is to select the definition file in the project settings to take this definition file into account. This done, the next compilation of the system will yield C files that can be used to create the shared library.