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The Extension Interface->Introduction

The key difference between the Virtual Workshop and a normal simulator is the way in which extensions can be added by the user.  See the Extension Integration topic in the Overview section for a description of how these extensions are recognised and link with the Virtual Workshop.

The Virtual Workshop communicates with extensions using a set of pre-defined C function calls.  The interface calls can be divided into the following categories:
    

Compulsory interface calls	Your extensions must always provide these functions.
General purpose interface calls	These are the ones that you will use most when creating extensions to support the specific features of your target system.
Capture state specific interface calls	These are the ones that you will need to support if you wish to exploit the capture state feature of the simulator
MFC specific interface calls	These calls allow you to exploit the features of the Microsoft Foundation Classes and allow you to support command routing and add menu items to the Embedded Development Studio
Variant specific interface calls	These are the interface calls that you will need if you wish to add support for 8051 variants not already supported by the Virtual Workshop
Advanced interface calls	These calls may be useful for advanced users

Any C or C++ compiler that can produce DLL's that will run on your PC can be used to create extensions.

If you wish to create an extension that uses the Microsoft Foundation Classes, then you must use Microsoft Visual C++ Version 5.0 (with service pack 3) and follow the guidelines described elsewhere in this document.

Each C function call is described below.