# Very new to Ruby--needs help **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 19, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675 "2005-12-19T22:30:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/1 "2005-12-19T22:30:29Z")
Dear Ruby Gurus, I would like to load a \*.lib file into my \*.rb file. How to do that. I did mentioned the path but was not successful. I did this: load (or require) “PATH name:\*.lib” thx, Mankan ---
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/2 "2005-12-20T00:03:42Z")
Beginner wrote: > Dear Ruby Gurus, > > I would like to load a \*.lib file into my \*.rb file. How to do that. I > did mentioned the path but was not successful. I did this: > > load (or require) “PATH name:\*.lib” What is in the .lib file? If it is ruby code (in which case you should just change it to .rb anyway:), require “#{path}/foobar.lib” Should work fine. If it is object code, I believe ruby can only load .so (and, I assume, .dll) files so you may need to extract the shared library. If it is just plain text or something, you would want to use File.open(filename) {|f| do\_something\_with f }. Please clarify a bit and I am sure we can help you get it working right! > thx, > Mankan E ---
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/3 "2005-12-20T14:30:20Z")
Dear Eero, Thank you very much. it is a low-level APIs named power32.lib and I would like to call this APIs from ruby to find the hardware parameters like number of boards etc. Hence I am looking for loading this power32.lib file and then call the low-level API from Ruby. Pls do let me know if the question is still not clear. thx in advance, Mankan ---
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/4 "2005-12-20T15:39:33Z")
Beginner wrote: > Mankan The “require” statement loads Ruby extensions, either those written in pure Ruby or those written in C using the Ruby extension API. So you can’t use it to interface to an arbitrary .dll or .lib file. There is a Ruby library that allows you to call functions in .dll files, though. Check out the Win32API class: [http://www.rubycentral.com/book/lib\_windows.html](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/lib_windows.html) You might also learn more about the Win32API library by searching through old postings to this list. Search for “Win32API”. Welcome to Ruby! ---
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/5 "2005-12-20T15:24:28Z")
Dear Eero, I am not able to load even .dll, this is what I did: require “C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\abc.dll” I am doing anything wrong. The .dll does exist in the directory, I get the erro, “the specified procedure could not be found”.(loadError) thx, Mankan ---
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/6 "2005-12-20T16:48:47Z")
Thank you Timothy and Patrick, I got the answer to what I am looking for. -Mankna ---
**Author:** ![beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/beginner)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/very-new-to-ruby-needs-help/50675/7 "2005-12-20T15:57:37Z")
On 12/20/05, Beginner [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am not able to load even .dll, this is what I did: > > require “C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\abc.dll” Is abc.dll the dll associated with power32.lib? Or just an example. I am unfamiliar (as is at least a cursory Google 🙂 with this particular library. Without a specific API document, I doubt we can provide you with the level of detail you will need at this stage in your programming career. From a high level there are two ways normally used to access external libraries from within Ruby: 1. Create an extension – this requires a certain amount of C programming either by hand or using something like SWIG. 2. Or using DL ([http://ttsky.net/ruby/ruby-dl.html](http://ttsky.net/ruby/ruby-dl.html)) If you can provide a specific API for the library you may get some additional help (even more so if the library in question is free/open source). Good Luck