No Gaviota EGTB probing for ChessGUI ?

[Matthias Gemuh]

GAVIOTA32TB.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF)

After many failed attempts to compile and link Gaviota EGTB probing into
ChessGUI, I now have to give up. ChessGUI compiler is Borland C++ Builder 5. Because Gaviota EGTB probing has very many source files (too many for my ChessGUI project), I compiled them into a static library using MS VC2008. However, the Borland compiler refuses to link this library into ChessGUI.
Linker Error: GAVIOTA32TB.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF).
I guess I will have to wait for Miguel (or someone else) to provide Gaviota EGTB probing as a DLL or a static library.

Matthias.

[michiguel]

GAVIOTA32TB.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF)

After many failed attempts to compile and link Gaviota EGTB probing into
ChessGUI, I now have to give up. ChessGUI compiler is Borland C++ Builder 5. Because Gaviota EGTB probing has very many source files (too many for my ChessGUI project), I compiled them into a static library using MS VC2008. However, the Borland compiler refuses to link this library into ChessGUI.
Linker Error: GAVIOTA32TB.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF).
I guess I will have to wait for Miguel (or someone else) to provide Gaviota EGTB probing as a DLL or a static library.

Matthias.

What is exactly the problem with having a given number of files for compilation? Is there a limit? Or the problem is of different nature? One possibility is to remove the support for all the alternative compression schemes. As long as compression scheme #4 is supported (the default), everything should be ok. I foresee that people will end up having only the set that occupies less space. Maybe I can provide a switch for only scheme 4 compilation. Would that help? that would cut down the number of files significantly.

Miguel

[Aaron Becker]

I created a 32 bit dll you can try; it's at http://charm.cs.uiuc.edu/~abecker/gtb.dll
I can't verify that it works because I don't have access to a Windows system right now, but it compiled cleanly at least.

[Matthias Gemuh]

GAVIOTA32TB.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF)

After many failed attempts to compile and link Gaviota EGTB probing into
ChessGUI, I now have to give up. ChessGUI compiler is Borland C++ Builder 5. Because Gaviota EGTB probing has very many source files (too many for my ChessGUI project), I compiled them into a static library using MS VC2008. However, the Borland compiler refuses to link this library into ChessGUI.
Linker Error: GAVIOTA32TB.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF).
I guess I will have to wait for Miguel (or someone else) to provide Gaviota EGTB probing as a DLL or a static library.

Matthias.

What is exactly the problem with having a given number of files for compilation? Is there a limit? Or the problem is of different nature? One possibility is to remove the support for all the alternative compression schemes. As long as compression scheme #4 is supported (the default), everything should be ok. I foresee that people will end up having only the set that occupies less space. Maybe I can provide a switch for only scheme 4 compilation. Would that help? that would cut down the number of files significantly.

Miguel

This "solution" fails also. Initial LIB is 508 kB big but resulting LIB file is only 2 kB small, with a bunch of unresolved externals.

Code: Select all

[Linker Error] [...]\NAME.LIB contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF)
The library is of the wrong type. Use coff2omf.exe, located in CBuilder/bin, to convert it to the correct type.

Example:

    * First copy the anyName.lib and coff2omf.exe to a temporary folder
    * Type:

coff2omf anyName.lib anyName.~lib
copy anyName.~lib anyName.lib

    * When prompted, do overwrite the old library file (keep a copy somewhere!!!).
    * Copy the anyName.lib to Cbuilder6/Lib (so it will be found without setting paths)
    * Delete the temporary folder.

There is no limit to number of files, but nobody is pleased to have more "foreign" files in one's own project than native files.
Nalimov comes with only 3 files for probing EGTB.

Matthias.

[jwes]

Borland and Microsoft .obj files are incompatible. You could use Borland to create a static library and link that to your project.

[Matthias Gemuh]

I created a 32 bit dll you can try; it's at http://charm.cs.uiuc.edu/~abecker/gtb.dll
I can't verify that it works because I don't have access to a Windows system right now, but it compiled cleanly at least.

Thanks, Aaron.

I will try to figure out how to grab function adresses from the DLL.
Sometimes a small LIB file holds those adresses. Must find out where that LIB comes from. Without a LIB file, access is unbearably slow for a chess GUI during blitz/bullet games.

Matthias.

[Matthias Gemuh]

Borland and Microsoft .obj files are incompatible. You could use Borland to create a static library and link that to your project.

I will try that. Thanks.

[Aaron Becker]

I believe the functions you need are LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress.

[Matthias Gemuh]

I believe the functions you need are LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress.

That approach may be too slow.
I think those functions can be avoided, if the LIB I have generated (using IMPLIB.exe) from your DLL, is properly used.

Matthias.

[Aaron Becker]

You only need to call those functions once to get a function pointer. Then you can use that pointer for the lifetime of your program. Calling them every time you want to call the function would definitely be slow.