Changes to Module Definition Files(.DEF)

A typical .def file looked like the following example prior to Visual Studio 2005:

LIBRARY update1
EXPORTS
   LibDescription   @1
   LibNumberClasses @2
   LibClassDesc     @3
   LibVersion       @4
SECTIONS
.data READ WRITE

With Visual Studio 2005, we now have the following code. The numbers in parentheses point to the footnotes below:

LIBRARY update1.dlo(1)
EXPORTS
   LibDescription   @1
PRIVATE (2)
   LibNumberClasses @2
PRIVATE
   LibClassDesc     @3
PRIVATE
   LibVersion       @4
PRIVATE
   LibInitialize    @6
PRIVATE (3)
   LibShutdown      @7
PRIVATE SECTIONS
.data READ WRITE

Notes:

1. If the extension is not given, the linker assumes .DLL as the extension. Because, it does not match the actual output filename, a warning appears.
2. PRIVATE will export the function from the DLL, but will not include the function prototype in the import library.
3. We have generally used 6 and 7 for the ordinal number on the two new functions, but this is not enforced and your plug-in will work if you use a different number.