What are the differences between a DLL and a LIB file?
A. John R. Shaw quoted :- In the past, if you linked in a normal .LIB file, then you had linked in every function that was contained in that file, whether you used them are not. I do not know if that is still the case, but it resulted in programs that where much larger than required to do the job, since most of the functions linked in where not used. Plus the fact that every program had there own versions of the same function code. If the same functions from the same library are used in several programs, then you should use a DLL. That way all the programs can share the same code: this reduce the size of the individual programs and reduces the amount of disk space required to store the programs and libraries they depend on. It also reduces the amount of memory required to load your program.
