LoadDLL ( Source | Text ) *** UPDATED 06-June-2005 ***
FN_LoadDLL provides a function equivalent to the code in the introduction to the 'Accessing the Windows API' section of the BBC BASIC for Windows manual.
Loads specified DLL into memory if required anc returns a pointer to the specified function. For subsequent requests for other functions within the same DLL dll$ does not need to be specified.
Many functions which accept strings such as LoadLibrary have two variants accepting either ASCII or UNICODE strings. The ASCII variant is suffixed with a 'A', as in LoadLibraryA and the UNICODE variant is suffixed with a 'W', as in LoadLibraryW. If FN_LoadDLL returns NULL for a known function, append an 'A' or a 'W' to the end of the function name, depending on the string type you are using then test if FN_LoadDLL returns a valid function handle.
Returns:
A handle for the requested function or, NULL if the operation failed.
Tidy up after using a DLL to save system resources.