[carapace]

I remember the day a friend explained to me that MS Word, Internet Explorer, and MS Frontpage were the same DLL just with different entry points.

[throwaway613834]

What? That seems both wrong and meaningless. You can compile as many programs as you want into a single DLL. Doesn't mean a thing.

[carapace]

It wasn't N programs packed into a DLL, it was one program (in a DLL) that acted like three different programs depending on how it was "started".

They were selling the same software as three different products.

[throwaway613834]

You consider MS Word and Internet Explorer in the same DLL to be "the same software" rather than 3 different pieces of software packed in the same DLL?

[carapace]

I'm just telling HN what my friend told me. It's not as if I've ever examined the file, y'know?

[_ah]

Your friend was lying to you.

Source: I'm a former MSFT employee, and I've spent WAY too much time working in the Office codebase.