dll not useable?

[Robert Dufour]

I downloaded a program (freeimgae) and installed it, among it's samples is
one that uses their dll (freeimage.dll) I opened the solution with Vs2003
but saw that the reference to the dll was broken, I tried to add new new
reference to the same dll but got amessage that it was not a valid dll nor a
com compoent and that only dll's can be used.
What should I do to be able to use dll's that are downloaded like this (it
was in a zip file).

Any help appreciated,
Bob

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Robert,

I downloaded a program (freeimgae) and installed it, among it's samples is
one that uses their dll (freeimage.dll) I opened the solution with Vs2003
but saw that the reference to the dll was broken, I tried to add new new
reference to the same dll but got amessage that it was not a valid dll nor
a com compoent and that only dll's can be used.
What should I do to be able to use dll's that are downloaded like this (it
was in a zip file).

There are different types of DLLs:

* .NET DLLs
* COM DLLs/ActiveX DLLs
* "Native" DLLs

"Native" DLLs can be consumed using 'Declare'/'DllImport'. You do not need
to reference them. However, I do not know the type of the "freeimage" DLLs.