[Wine] Using third-party dlls

morrow0233
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:03:08 -0000

I am in the process of trying to port a Windows library to Linux (maybe also to
Mac, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).  The existing library is
essentially a facade layer to a number of third-party dlls (mostly COM-based,
although one is .NET-based) over which I have no control.  These third-party
dlls have no UI of their own.  Their purpose is to allow access to proprietary
data formats.

The optimal solution would be to use Wine to link to these third-party dlls in
my Linux library, so that apps that use my library would not have to explicitly
be run under Wine.  I've read enough docs so far to understand that this is
well outside the realm of current possibility.

So, what are my options here?  The best I can think of so far is to have my
library layer talk to a separate Windows executable designed to specifically run
under Wine.  The executable, in turn, will talk to the third-party dlls as
necessary.  The main problem here is the significant developer effort that would
be required to implement the communication layer between the Linux library and
the executable running under Wine.

I'm really hoping that someone who knows more about Wine can suggest a
better, more integrated solution.  Thanks.