DLL vs Shared Library

[Phillip Susi]

Mario Vukelic wrote:
> Windows DLLs are not position-independent, and as thus not "real" shared
> libraries. DLL loading can therefore be quite resource-intensive,

Yes, they are position-independent.  That is the one thing that 
differentiates an exe from a dll: the dll is compiled to be position 
independent, the exe is not.  Other than that, the file format is 
exactly the same ( Portable Executable or PE format ).

> because the addresses have to be recomputed.

Not if they are loaded at their preferred address.  This is exactly the 
same way that shared libraries work.

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_(computer_science)#Shared_library
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Position_independent_code
> 
>