Application Deployment

Under DOS, deploying your application was a pretty trivial procedure. You just copied the files to a floppy. Unfortunately, under MS Windows using MS Visual Basic, MS Visual C++, and Borland C++ Builder you need special instructions and a fair amount of luck to accomplish this. You see, each of these requires a runtime library (1 or more dll's) which, in turn, requires 2 floppies and an install program for even the simplest of programs.

Application	DLL	Size
Visual Basic	MSVBVM60.DLL	1,352 Kb
Visual C++	Msvcrt.dll Msvcrt40.dll Mfc42.dll	273 Kb 64 Kb 973 Kb
C++ Builder	dll	1,352 Kb

However, the real problem with this is that there are several versions of each dll. The result is expected, loading your application can break other applications already on the same machine. Also, loading some other application can break your application.
(Welcome to DLL hell.)

Borland Delphi is the exception, just copy the executables.

Visual Basic | Delphi | C++ Builder

Visual Basic 6.0

VB executables require additional files in order to run. Just copying your exe to a floppy accomplishes nothing.

First you need to use the Package and Deployment Wizard. The help files tell you how excellant this wizard is and how it solves all kinds of problems. However, it does not tell you how to execute it!

From the VB menu, select Add-Ins / Add-In Manager...
Find and add the Package and Deployment Wizard
(This was the first selection on my system)
Check both Loaded/Unloaded and Load on Startup
(Checking Loaded/Unloaded makes it available now,
Checking Load on Startup makes it available the next time you run VB.)
Press OK
This wizard is now available via the Add-Ins menu

The Package and Deployment Wizard determines what dependances exits and places them all in a compressed cab file. In my case, it could not find user, so I told it to continue without it. A CAB file containing TestDOSApp.exe (76K) and COMDLG32.OCX (137K) has a total size of 1,443K. Additional files include

VB6STKIT.DLL	101 Kb
COMCAT.DLL	6 Kb
STDOLE2.TLB	18 Kb
ASYCFILT.DLL	145 Kb
OLEPRO32.DLL	161 Kb
OLEAUT32.DLL	585 Kb
MSVBVM60.DLL	1,376 Kb

A blank floppy has only 1,457 Kb.
The distribution software is 1.54 Mb
The ..\Package\Support directory is 3.03 Mb

CopyToClipboard.exe 16 Kb ----- Distribution 1.46 Mb, 2.84 Mb for Support

CopyToClipboard is very small and does not display anything. CreateNewDirectory has a small form with a text box and 2 buttons. They both use the same dll's except that CreateNewDirectory does not include COMDLG32.OCX (137K).

App	Size	Distribution	Support
CopyToClipboard	16 Kb	1.46 Mb	2.84 Mb
CreateNewDirectory	24 Kb	1.46 Mb	2.85 Mb

Delphi

For simple projects, just copy your exe to a floppy.

CopyToClip.exe	165 Kb	No additional files needed for distribution
CopyToClipboard.exe	14 Kb	No additional files needed for distribution

C++ Builder

Good luck - there is almost no documentation on this.

Most applications require 2 dll's - aa and aa. If you set link .... then zz won't be required.

Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org