Show how to call a function in a shared library (without dynamically linking to it at compile-time). In particular, show how to call the shared library function if the library is available, otherwise use an internal equivalent function.

This is a special case of calling a foreign language function where the focus is close to the ABI level and not at the normal API level.



Related task

 OpenGL -- OpenGL is usually maintained as a shared library.


alien = require("alien")
msgbox = alien.User32.MessageBoxA
msgbox:types({ ret='long', abi='stdcall', 'long', 'string', 'string', 'long' })
retval = msgbox(0, 'Please press Yes, No or Cancel', 'The Title', 3)
print(retval) --> 6, 7 or 2