Merge remote branch 'origin/master'

[ghc-hetmet.git] / docs / users_guide / win32-dlls.xml

diff --git a/docs/users_guide/win32-dlls.xml b/docs/users_guide/win32-dlls.xml
index f00e1e2..44f589a 100644 (file)
--- a/docs/users_guide/win32-dlls.xml
+++ b/docs/users_guide/win32-dlls.xml
@@ -209,15 +209,6 @@ make-sessions running under cygwin.
 </title>
 
 <para>
-<emphasis>Making Haskell libraries into DLLs doesn't work on Windows at the
-moment; we hope to re-instate this facility in the future
-(see <xref linkend="using-shared-libs"/>).  Note that
-building an entire Haskell application as a single DLL is still supported: it's
-       just multi-DLL Haskell programs that don't work.  The Windows
-       distribution of GHC contains static libraries only.</emphasis></para>
-
-<!--
-<para>
 <indexterm><primary>Dynamic link libraries, Win32</primary></indexterm>
 <indexterm><primary>DLLs, Win32</primary></indexterm>
 On Win32 platforms, the compiler is capable of both producing and using
@@ -226,6 +217,33 @@ section shows you how to make use of this facility.
 </para>
 
 <para>
+There are two distinct ways in which DLLs can be used:
+<itemizedlist>
+  <listitem>
+    <para>
+      You can turn each Haskell package into a DLL, so that multiple
+      Haskell executables using the same packages can share the DLL files.
+      (As opposed to linking the libraries statically, which in effect
+      creates a new copy of the RTS and all libraries for each executable
+      produced.)
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      That is the same as the dynamic linking on other platforms, and it
+      is described in <xref linkend="using-shared-libs"/>.
+    </para>
+  </listitem>
+  <listitem>
+    <para>
+      You can package up a complete Haskell program as a DLL, to be called
+      by some external (usually non-Haskell) program. This is usually used
+      to implement plugins and the like, and is described below.
+    </para>
+  </listitem>
+</itemizedlist>
+</para>
+
+<!--
+<para>
 Until recently, <command>strip</command> didn't work reliably on DLLs, so you
 should test your version with care, or make sure you have the latest
 binutils. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly which version of binutils