[PATCH] [Attn Adam] Migrate libgcj to WinSock 2 on Windows

Tue Oct 29 06:10:00 GMT 2002

Adam Megacz wrote:
> Ranjit Mathew <rmathew@hotmail.com> writes:
>>>The current libgcj on Windows uses a mix of both WinSock 1.1
>>and WinSock 2 (provided by wsock32.dll and ws2_32.dll respectively).
>>> Yes, I agree that this is strange.
>> What was the very first verison of Windows to *ship* with Winsock 2?
> If Win95 OSR2 shipped with Winsock 2, then it's a no-brainer, since
> libgcj already requires OSR2 or later.

WinNT4 was the first "professional" version, while Win98 was
the first "home" version, of Windows to be shipped natively
with WinSock 2. On WinNT 3.51 it is *not supported* at all,
while on Windows 95 it can be easily downloaded from the URL
I'd sent in the original patch:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wuadmintools/s_wunetworkingtools/w95sockets2/
It used to be shipped with a WinSock 2 SDK for Windows 95
before this update was released.
The thing is, unless it is a fresh machine on which no
software of any significance has been installed, ws2_32.dll
is quite likely to be present.
Does any one have a Windows 95 machine that they have been
using and that does not have ws2_32.dll? For example, is
it the case that IE 4.x is there on the machine and yet
ws2_32.dll is not there?
WinSock 2 has a better architecture, resolves some issues,
improves performance, yadda, yadda - but is not *necessary*
(strictly speaking) as far as I can tell.
There was a similar choice facing the MinGW developers - to
use the archaic but omnipresent CRTDLL.DLL or the newer
and better MSVCRT.DLL, that would be there only on Win95 OSR2
or later - there's a very low chance that a machine in
regular use does not have MSVCRT.DLL installed via some
application, but just in the case that it does not, it can
be readily downloaded from the MS site.
I believe that we face a similar choice here - my
personal recommendation (worth my 2p) is to go with
ws2_32.
Lastly, for an example (or more) of problems that
can crop up by mixing WinSock 1.1 and WinSock 2,
see this MS Knowledge Base article (Q257460):
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q257/4/60.asp
Sincerely Yours,
Ranjit.
-- 
Ranjit Mathew Email: rmathew AT hotmail DOT com
Bangalore, INDIA. Web: http://ranjitmathew.tripod.com/