Linkers, Loaders, & Libraries

Question	Answer
What is a Library?	> Small pieces of pre-written, compiled, tested, and checked pieces of code > Developers can rely upon libraries to help shorten code > Exist in most programming languages to offer shorthand ways to achieve a common task > Programmers do not have to repeat code whenever they want a common task
What is a Linker?	> Software responsible for linking libraries to code that uses them > Libraries can be statically or dynamically linked > Statically linked libraries are included in the compiled machine code, which increases the binary footprint of the code > Dynamically linked libraries are not included in the machine code, but must be installed for the program to run (this is helpful for OS functions, such as showing a window)
What is a Loader?	> Type of program that loads the program you're trying to run (not confusing at all!) > Part of the OS that finds a good place for object or machine code to sit in memory > When using statically linked libraries, all of the library and code is loaded into memory > When using dynamically linked libraries, the loaded will load the library into memory when necessary

Resource summary

	Created by Malachy Moran-Tun over 1 year ago

	Copied by Malachy Moran-Tun over 1 year ago