VC98 IDL compiler (MIDL) - Where to get it ?
R.Wieser
I've currently succeeded making an ActiveX component in pure Assembly, but
I'm a bit stuck in regard to creating a TypeLib file.
By some googeling I found that MS uses the "midl" compiler for that, and was
able to find a machine that had Visual C installed and could than use that
program.
Alas, that same program refuses to work on my own machine, as its (still)
running W98se, and some more googeling did not return any way to get either
the W98 version of MIDL or VC98 itself
So I was wondering if someone knows where to get a W98se compatible MIDL
compiler (including "midlc.exe" and other dependencies) or maybe a copy of
VC98 (so I can extract it myself).
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
mayayana
would run Windows Xtra Problems, after all, if
they don't have to? :)
As I mentioned in an earlier thread, Matthew
Curland makes a case for using mktyplib over midl.
Personally I have no experience with either, so I
don't know about that. In any case, I'd be happy
to send you both if I can confirm that it's OK legally.
Midl comes with the SDK so I would think that it's legal
to pass that on, but I don't know.
Another option might be to look for a used version
of VS6 on sale. I imagine there must be people who've
moved to .Net or Java and no longer have any use
for VS.
mayayana
> to send you both if I can confirm that it's OK legally.
I was just looking at a license for a recent DDK and it
actually seems to be quite restrictive. That's silly, since
the DDK can be freely downloaded! Nevertheless, MS
seems to define their SDK downloads as licensed software,
with detailed limitations on redistributable code/binaries.
Unfortunately, the Win9x problem will only get worse,
and MS makes every effort to cut support. I recently
noticed that the Orca MSI editor download, which used
to contain both a 9x and an NT version, has had the
9x version removed. And now it's only officially available as
part of a gigantic SDK download. Plus, the SDK download itself
generally requires installation of the WGA spyware. And even
if you *want* to agree to that, WGA only runs on NT!
The only choice is to make backups of anything useful
that one can find before it's gone.
R.Wieser
> In any case, I'd be happy to send you both if I
> can confirm that it's OK legally.
Let me know if you think its legal (as you said, I cannot get it from MS
anymore, so getting "a copy of" seems to be my only chance).
If you have VC for W98 and you think its only legal to let me copy the whole
package (which *was* a free download) than I'll be hapy to load the whole
shebang (even if I need only a fraction of it).
> The only choice is to make backups of anything
> useful that one can find before it's gone.
Which is pretty-much what I'm doing. :-)
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
mayayana
> If you have VC for W98 and you think its only legal to let me copy the
whole
> package (which *was* a free download)
I didn't know that. I have VS6, which was very much
*not* a free download. :)
I got curious about this and started looking around.
Hopefully something here will be helpful.
mktyplib: ---------------
This link is to mktyplib.exe. I downloaded the file and
ran it. It seems to be "kosher".
http://www.kellyethridge.com/vbcorlib/MKTYPLIB.EXE
According to info. here...
http://support.microsoft.com/dllhelp/
...the downloaded file, which is v. 2.20.4054, came with
VS6 in the VB unsupported folder, while v. 2.30.4230
came in the VC\Bin folder. (!)
midl.exe: --------------------
While midl.exe doesn't seem to be in the recent SDKs,
it is in the Server 2003 DDK, which can be downloaded
here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/0/f/90f019ac-8243-48d3-91cf-81fc409
3ecfd/1830_usa_ddk.iso
After writing the ISO to CD, if you don't have an
XP box to install the DDK on, open the Common
folder and find the CAB X86dBINS.cab. The file
inside named X86dBINS_FILE_16 is actually midl.exe.
The version info. says it's 5.2. When I run it in a
DOS window it says v. 6. In any case, it seems to
run fine on Win98.
(Also, file # 15 in IA6dBINS.cab seems to be the
same thing, though the FileVersionInfo is somehow
damaged, only visible via hex editor. Odd. I knew
that midl.exe was in there somewhere so I just did
a Find for text on the whole Common folder. The INF
files contain the real file names for the inexplicably
falsely-named files in the CABs.)
There's also a midlc.exe that comes with the DDK,
but I don't know how that's different.
R.Wieser
> I didn't know that.
I do not know that either. I just assumed from what I thought I heard and
as the current version is a free download its predecessor was, in the past,
one too.
My apollogies for jumping to conclusions. I do not know if it ever was a
version 6 for free download.
Thanks for your searching and posting the links. I must confess I saw some
references to that MkTyplib program (even downloaded a version), but as it
seemsto use a slightly different IDL structure (no idea what "slight" means
here though) I thought it was wise to leave it alone for the moment.
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
-- Origional message
mayayana <mayaX...@rcXXn.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
OPEB3JlX...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
mayayana
some
> references to that MkTyplib program (even downloaded a version), but as it
> seemsto use a slightly different IDL structure (no idea what "slight"
means
> here though) I thought it was wise to leave it alone for the moment.
I had Mktyplib in
mind because Matthew Curland says this about the
issue in his Advanced Visual Basic 6 book (p. 408):
"Microsoft has officially replaced mktyplib.exe with
midl.exe as its preferred typelib compiler. ...Mktyplib works
better for producing typelibs designed strictly for VB. Midl
is a much more powerful general-purpose tool.... The
primary purpose of midl is the generation of custom-
marshalling DLLs, while the primary purpose of mktyplib
is the generation of type libraries."
He then goes on to say that midl involves unnecessary
complexity when it comes to creating typelibs for VB and
launched into an analysis of specific issues and slight
differences -- as you noted -- with the two tools.
But as I mentioned above, I don't have any experience
actually writing/compiling a typelib from scratch. Mktyplib
may or may not be relevant to what you want. Hopefully
I'm not just wasting your time or sending you on a
wild goose chase. :)
R.Wieser
> Mktyplib may or may not be relevant to what you want.
> Hopefully I'm not just wasting your time or sending you
> on a wild goose chase. :)
After having read your message stating that MKTYPLIB is actually a MS-made
replacement for MIDL I thought it would be a good idea to *at least* take a
look at it and downloaded it from the link you supplied in your previous
message.
To my pleasure it seemed to be a simple stand-alone program, and whats more,
it works under Win98 (The VC++ MIDL I found refuses to).
After having googled for some ODL examples and documentation I was able to
create a .TLB that was accepted instead of the origional .TLB that came with
the "SimpleServer" MASM example that I'm using to 'get to know' OCX/ActiveX.
So, thank you (again) for that link.
Although I'm still trying to create a TypeLib from scratch (if for nothing
else than to see how it works) I can now attempt to create a somewhat more
usefull OCX/ActiveX component (RS232 comes to mind).
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
-- Origional message
mayayana <mayaX...@rcXXn.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
eVUt7WsX...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
mayayana
MS-made
> replacement for MIDL
It was actually the other way around, but all's well
that ends well.
> Although I'm still trying to create a TypeLib from scratch (if for nothing
> else than to see how it works) I can now attempt to create a somewhat more
> usefull OCX/ActiveX component (RS232 comes to mind).
If you can get hold of Matthew Curland's book it might
be useful. He goes into some depth about specifics and
compares mktyplib to midl. He also includes a typelib editor
on the CD and I think he made the source code available
at powervb.com.