[ale] UNIX equivalent of Windows DLL

[knakov at nemetschek.bg (Kalin Nakov)]

Hi. I'm new to UNIX programming, so the following questions may seem
stupid, but I would be happy if someone answers them.

1. Is there equivalent of Windows DLL's (dynamic loadable libraries) in
UNIX? If so, can somebody tell me the API to search for?
I need something like
lib = load_a_library("mylib");
func = get_func("my_func");
func("param1", param2, ...);

2. Can somebody point out a qood programming environment (IDE) - something
like Microsoft Visual Studio (something simpler can do certainly, but it
must have syntax hilighting and debugging capabilities)? It may be Linux
speciffic, for X Windows or run in a terminal (console) mode.

3. I have RedHat 6.0 (gtk+-1.2.1 and glib-1.2.1) and I downloaded
gtk+-1.2.6 and glib-1.2.6. I compiled and installed glib-1.2.6, but when
running ./configure for gtk+-1.2.6 I got the error that I have an old
version of glib (1.2.1). Can somebody help?

4. Is there vector font support (like TrueType) in X Windows? If so, where
can I such font server?

5. Are there libraries for making "smooth" edges (antialiasing) of screen
fonts?

Your help will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.