National Instruments 320685D-01 Using Externally Compiled Modules

Chapter 5 UNIX Compiler/Linker Issues
LabWindows/CVI Programmer Reference Manual 5-6
© National Instruments Corporation
Using Externally Compiled Modules
In general, you can load objects compiled with the Sun compilers and the GNU gcc compiler
into LabWindows/CVI, with a few restrictions.
Restrictions on Externally Compiled Modules
You can use externally compiled modules with the following restrictions:
• The objects must not use any data types that are incompatible with the LabWindows/CVI
compiler or libraries. Incompatible data types include the following:
–long double with any Sun compilers. A Sun compiler implements long double
as a 16-byte object, but LabWindows/CVI implements it as an 8-byte object.
–long long with the Solaris 2 Sun compiler. LabWindows/CVI does not support this
non-ANSI type.
– Any enumeration type. Many compilers implement enumeration types with different
sizes and values.
• You cannot load a Solaris 2 object file when you run LabWi ndows/CVI under Solaris 1.
However, you can load Solaris 1 objects when you run under Solaris 2.
Compiling Modules With External Compilers
You can compile external modules using LabWindows/CVI header f iles instead of the headers
the compiler supplies. To compile this way, you must define the preprocessor macro
_NI_sparc_ to the value 1 for Solaris 1 or to the value 2 for Solaris2.
When using the Sun ANSI C compiler, use the -I flag to add the LabWindows/CVI include
directory to the search list, as shown in the following command lines:
Solaris 1: acc -Xc -I/home/cvi/include -D_NI_sparc_=1 -c mysource.c
Solaris 2: cc -Xc -I/home/cvi/include -D_NI_sparc_=2 -c mysource.c
When using the GNU compiler, use the -nostdinc flag to disable the standard include files
and the -I flag to add the LabWindows/CVI include directory to the search list. Also, you
must use the -ansi flag. For example, to compile the file mysource.c using
LabWindows/CVI headers under Solaris 1, use the following command line.
gcc -ansi -nostdinc -I/home/cvi/include -D_NI_sparc_=1 -c mysource.c
You might see warnings about conflicting types for the built-in functions memcmp and
memcpy, but you can ignore them.
Note These examples assume that /home/cvi/include is the LabWindows/CVI
header files directory. The actual path depends on how you install your copy of
LabWindows/CVI.
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