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Definition of Link

By David Bolton, About.com

Definition: To convert Source Code to Machine code takes two phases.

  1. Compilation. This turns the Source Code into Object Code.
  2. Linking. This collects all the various Object Code files and builds them into an EXE or DLL.

Linking is quite a technical process. The obj files generated by the compiler include extra information that the linker needs to ensure that function calls between different obj files are correctly "joined up".

Glossary:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Examples:
Linking the aplication took two hours.
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