Calling unmanaged c++ dll's and lib's into c# using visual studio 2005 beta

For standard C-style function exports of a .dll, your best bet is to P/Invoke out to it. (This does not require adding a reference to the dll in Visual Studio, although Windows will need to be able to find your .dll when running the application, so it will have to either be copied into your output directory, or placed somewhere on the path). If you're trying to call C++ objects, probably the easiest route would be to create a Managed C++ project which acts as a bridge between the managed world and the unmanaged objects. Since MC++ code can expose a managed object model, while still calling unmanaged code you can wrap the Vorbis OM in your own bridge layer.

You cannot directly use a .lib, although you could build a dll that just wrapped around the .lib and use one of the techniques above. The MC++ technique will also work out well here.

-Shawn

For standard P/Invoke, look at MSDN documentation for the DllImportAttribute (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemruntimeinteropservicesdllimportattributeclasstopic.asp). There also seems to be a series of MSDN Magazine articles on the topic:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/07/NET/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/10/net/default.aspx

As for writting a C++ bridge, I would start by checking out the Visual C++ forums (http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=96)

Hope that helps,
-Shawn

Did some experiments with vorbis a year ago. Used VC++ to wrap static vorbislibs. Not that difficult to do. If your interested i could ftp you my sample code.