LoadRunner: Compilation and Runtime - 1

We start from our friend MDRV.exe who sits smugly in the bin folder. This process does a whole bunch of things including:
* Invoking the compiler to compile LR code
* Invoking the interpreter (effectively acting a runtime)
* Actually running on a generator host
* Debugging

To understand MDRV from a runtime perspective is to compare it to the Win32 and Java platforms. Here's a simple comparison.


Win32 World
=======================
.c -------->Compiler-->.obj
.obj/.lib-->Linker---->.exe/.dll
.exe/.dll-->Runtime(Explorer)->Parsed into machine Opcode

Java World
=======================
.java ---->JavaC Compiler-->.class
No Linker
.class---->Runtime(JVM)---->Coverted to machine-specifc Opcode

LoadRunner World
=======================
.c---------->GNU CPP--->combined_XX.c & pre_cci.c
combined_XX.c & pre_cci.c--->LCC CCI-->.ci [Compiled Image]
No Linker
.ci---->Runtime(MDRV)---->Coverted to machine-specifc Opcode