Expert: Narendra - 6/7/2005

Question
Regarding building libraries I was talking about msdos based libraries where the library code is statically linked. Since the compiler knows which function the execuatble is going to call it can link only the needed function.

Answer
First of all, it is not the function that gets linked. It is the library that gets linked.
And that function in the library may call another function of the same library. So, if compiler starts checking each function for all these dependencies, it will take very long time for it to compile!

Another important thing is, for a compiler the library is a "Black Box". It will look at it as a single big box (not as a small boxes with different functions) and use it that way.
So, whether it is static or dynamic library, the whole library will be loaded, not individual functions.