I'm not sure how the DLL Function step can work correctly if there is no agreement on memory management functions. I mean, how do you know what memory manager is used to allocate the returned char pointer? What memory manager are you using to free the char pointer that is returned?

btw, memory allocated by DLL from manufacturer A being freed up by DLL from manufacturer B is a common design error that causes memory corruption. <br> <br>Two solutions is that you can require the DLL to have a Free function that you call to free up the returned char pointer, so the DLL can use the same memory manager that it used to allocate it in the first place. Or you can pass in a function pointer to your Alloc routine.