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copied!<blockquote> <p>I believe you can call functions inside an extern "C" block from C# by just referencing the DLL.</p> </blockquote> <p>Wrong, you have to use <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.interopservices.dllimportattribute.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>DllImport</code></a> or so-called <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/essentialpinvoke.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PInvoke</a> (Platform Invoke) to call a native C function from managed code. Referencing works only for .NET assemblies or COM with an <a href="http://www32.brinkster.com/srisamp/netArticles/article_16.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">automatically generated interop dll</a>.</p> <p>Using C++ from C# becomes a real nightmare because of name mangling among other things.</p> <p>If you can you could compile a managed C++ Dll as a wrapper to make both worlds meet. This has also the advantage that you can mark your assembly as <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182157%28VS.90%29.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>ComVisible</code></a>, thus making it available to plenty of tools capable of handling COM.</p> <p>An alternative is to write a C wrapper around the C++ API, what can be tedious and ugly.</p> <p>EDIT:</p> <p>Help to decide which approach to use:</p> <ul> <li>1) You have a native C dll <ul> <li>WARNING: if you use a .lib from Managed C++, then the dll is not truely dynamically linked and cannot be replaced with a simple drop in of a newer compatible version.</li> <li>PREFERRED: Use P/Invoke from any .NET language (drop-in replacement possible)</li> </ul></li> </ul> <blockquote> <p></p> </blockquote> <ul> <li>2) You have a native C++ dll <ul> <li>DO NOT use P/Invoke, this is a real nightmare (because of name mangling among other things)</li> <li>PREFERRED: Build a wrapper .NET dll with managed C++, works only if you have a compiler compatible with the one that was used to compile the native dll.</li> <li>If the native DLL was build with an incompatible compiler (Compiler A) of the one you can use for managed C++ (Compiler C), then I advise to build (With the same compiler A) a C wrapper around the native C++ dll. Then use the P/Invoke method to use this wrapper C dll like described in 1) </li> </ul></li> </ul>

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