-# define wxDllOpen(lib) dlopen(lib.fn_str(), RTLD_NOW/*RTLD_LAZY*/)
-# define wxDllGetSymbol(handle, name) dlsym(handle, name.mb_str())
+ // note about dlopen() flags: we use RTLD_NOW to have more Windows-like
+ // behaviour (Win won't let you load a library with missing symbols) and
+ // RTLD_GLOBAL because it is needed sometimes and probably doesn't hurt
+ // otherwise. On True64-Unix RTLD_GLOBAL is not allowed and on VMS the
+ // second argument on dlopen is ignored.
+#ifdef __VMS
+# define wxDllOpen(lib) dlopen(lib.fn_str(), 0 )
+#elif defined( __osf__ )
+# define wxDllOpen(lib) dlopen(lib.fn_str(), RTLD_LAZY )
+#else
+# define wxDllOpen(lib) dlopen(lib.fn_str(), RTLD_LAZY | RTLD_GLOBAL)
+#endif
+#define wxDllGetSymbol(handle, name) dlsym(handle, name)