title: Using a DLL with unmanaged code in Visual Studio 2010?
body: <p>I'm fairly new to C++ and an trying to figure out to use the <a href="http://developer.kde.org/~wheeler/taglib.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TagLib library</a> for a project I am working on. I'm working with unmanaged C++ in Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7 64bit. I've never used an external library before so I'm very confused on how to go about this.</p>
  
  <p>From <a href="http://www.joelverhagen.com/blog/2010/11/how-to-compile-taglib-on-windows/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this blog entry</a> I got the libtaglib.a and taglib.dll files. I ran across <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3860703/compiling-taglib-into-qt-c-project-on-windows/4187587#4187587">this SO question</a> on how to use TagLib, but it deals with QT Creator, not Visual Studio and I'm not knowledgeable enough about the subject to understand what is being said to translate it into what needs done for Visual Studio.</p>
  
  <p>So, some questions:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Is it even possible to do this with unmanaged code?</li>
  <li>What exactly is the function of a .a file?</li>
  <li>Most importantly, how do I go about using the taglib.dll in my program??</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I've been all over Google looking for a way to do this, but my major problem is that everything I run across is over my head. Please let me know if more info is required. Any help is very much appreciated! Thanks!</p>