I've been working on a XULRunner based program for quite long. Since XULRunner isn't actively supported anymore, I kept running my program via Firefox with its -app switch. Now I'd like to build a standalone program, with an installer to distribute, but I cannot find any relating information. Is that even possible?
What you want to do is really pretty much the original use case. I've only personally seen it done with NSIS, but also Inno is mentioned in the documentation.
Here are some helpful links...
Deploying XULRunner
Gives a high level overview.
The short version is that you need to bring your own installer solution, but one example is detailed here:
Windows Into setup installer
Or, using NSIS, this stub:
Sample NSIS script for XULRunner
Related
I have downloaded spotify API and am trying to build the example code using libspotify on Windows. The build environment seems to apply only for Mac/Linux world (atleast the Makefile seems to suggest that and there are no Visual Studio project files). Any one has any luck in building the sample code on Windows ?
Even the basic stub example uses pthreads which is not available on windows. Since all their examples assume a POSIX compliant OS (which windows is not) I'm afraid you will not be able to build them on windows (natively). If you want try then take a look at Cygwin.
However, you can still use the include header file and the provided dll/lib to link against and develop applications. The library calls made in the examples are still valid - just not the examples themselves.
I want to compile a portable version of Firefox 3 on a low cost Intel Celeron Windows Xp machine to run as a kiosk computer. So i just want the browsing functionality since i'll be running it on the fullscreen mode. What are the steps to do a minimal rebuild from the sources?
Also what is firefox's command line parameters to open a site from the cmd?
A "Stripped down minimal build" doesn't really make any sense. You can't really exclude any functionality that would make it run faster or be any smaller, since most of the code that Firefox needs to render webpages is the same code that it uses to render its user interface. Forget about trying to "strip down" the code.
That being said, it sounds like you probably want to use XULRunner, which will let you use all the web browsing functionality of Firefox, but wrap it in your own GUI. You can find an ultra-minimalist browser XUL application here:
http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/xulrunner/mybrowser-0.2.2.xulapp
There is a Kiosk mode addon (more for a lock-down) for Firefox.
You may be in general interested in this other question here:
How to lock down Windows XP for use as an internet kiosk?
Here is a gHacks reference for custom builds.
and, a Prism reference.
http://webconverger.com/ provides a minimalistic OS build featuring Firefox. There is also build instructions if you want to build your own customised images.
I want to create an installer for my project, primarily to handle the external dependencies which are starting to grow in number.
The problem is most of these components seem to be distributed in different manners, so I need an installer that can cope with all the following. Ive looked at various things around, however many dont seem to cover all the things I need (like how to install directX using a Visual Studio setup project...), or dont even create a proper windows installer (eg .msi).
Copy all my apps files to the target directory
Create start menu and desktop shortcuts
Install direct x (ie call dxsetup.exe /silent)
Install the VC9 CRT redist (seems to be a "merge module" looking at msdn whatever that is...)
Only requires administrative rights if one of the following is true
DirectX and/or the VC9 CRT is not already present, or needs updating
Installing for all users
Installing to a directory the user doesnt have write permission for
Can roll back everything if installation is aborted before completion
Generates an uninstaller as well as an installer
Ensures the user accepts all required EULA's (my one, VC9 Redist, DirectX, etc)
For example I got the VS2008 Setp Project working for my app files and the VC9 CRT, however I dont see anyway to tell it to just run dxsetup.exe with the /silent argument and NOT extract it and all the other dx installer to the app directory or something...
EDIT:
Also it would be really nice if I could have a unified installer for x86 and x86-64, which installers the correct components (eg myapp_x86.exe or myapp_x64.exe) depending on if the OS is 64bit or not.
EDIT2:
Forgot to mention but either a free or low cost solution would be welcome as well, since I need a solution for some of my smaller personal stuff as well.
WiX is what you want. You'll want to read through the v3 documentation and examples, as it is not a simple thing to use. Once you get going, you'll have follow-up questions which you should post as new questions.
See also the WiX tutorial, but keep in mind it refers to v2, and a lot of it is out-of-date or obsolete in v3.
If you can afford it, Installshield does all this very well and professionally. It will include the merge file and seamlessly install as well. Installshield has its quirks, but it is incredibly easy to use and robust. Once you write your app, you don't want to think a lot about the installer.
Some nice features I liked
Creates patch installs by diff'ing the source so you can distribute patches with a small size.
Create upgrades that update the registry and version number of your app. Prevents older versions from being installed.
Creates an nice uninstaller.
It's Easy to add merge modules.
Scriptible if you need it to be, GUI if not (most of the time you don't need to script a thing).
If you can't afford that, go with NSIS. It is very powerful and well used, but prepared to write code in a text editor.
Follow these STeps
I've written an application using gtkmm and libpcap under Linux. Of course, gtkmm depends on GTK+.
After porting it to Windows and attempting to distribute it, the feedback I received is that there are too many dependencies to install.
The user has to run installers for the GTK+, gtkmm, and winpcap runtimes before they can run my little application, which admittedly is a pain.
GIMP for Windows seems to use an installer that launches a GTK+ installer if needed, but doing that for three different libraries seems a little excessive, especially in terms of the installer size.
Is there a better way to distribute this? I believe winpcap actually has to install a service, so it probably has to run the installer, but maybe I could bundle the GTK+/gtkmm libraries in the runtime folder?
I'm quite a bit more familiar with Linux development, so I'm not sure what the best course of action is.
I highly recommend using a tool like Advanced Installer to deal with this for you. Making a proper installer on windows is a real headache, so it's well worth your time to use a GUI tool to help you out. AI (and other installers, for that matter) can install and manage windows services, prerequisites, and so on, and in the long run you'll save a lot of time by using a tool like this to help with your deployment. Advanced Installer in particular has very good support for managing different dependencies, along with their associated versions, and it can also install a native Windows service during the install process. They have a freeware version, but depending on the nature of your product, you might want to spring for one of the commercial versions.
Basically, if you're serious about deploying on Windows, you should invest the time (and money, possibly) to make a proper MSI-style installer. Not to knock the NSIS crowd, but making non-standard Windows installers always results in a lot more work for the developer, and a more uncomfortable experience for the end user.
If you want to manually package the GTKmm runtime, see this link at gnome.org for more details (look under Redistributing). You can also silently run the GTKmm installer using the /S flag.
For certain programs nothing beats the command line. Unfortunately, I have never seen good documentation or examples on how to write console applications that go beyond "Hello World". I'm interested in making console apps like Vim or Emacs. Well not exactly like Vim or Emacs but one that takes over the entire command prompt while it is in use and then after you exit it leaves no trace behind. I know that on Unix there is the curses library but for Windows? ...
PDCurses works on Win32.
I found List of Console Functions on msdn, PDCurses, and The Console Module.
You can certainly write that kind of application with Delphi, which has reasonable commandline support. People often overlook that Delphi can build any kind of Windows executable, not just GUI apps.
I don't know off-hand if the free 'Turbo' edition of Delphi has anything cobbled into it to PREVENT you from using it to build console apps - I would have thought it would be fine for this kind of thing.
There is a small but good tutorial on using C++ for the Windows console at www.benryves.com/tutorials/?t=winconsole&c=all going as far as coding a simple painting program.
You could also try Free Pascal. It is a free ((L)GPL) Object Pascal compiler which is compatible with the Delphi-compiler. It has an console-based IDE, which proves that you can make very good console-applications with it, and which you can use as an example.
If you want to use a graphical IDE to build your console-application, you can download the Lazarus IDE.
As a bonus your application will run on Windows (32/64 bit), Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris etc...
In Windows or DOS, I used the conio library from Borland. It's very old but fine enough for a beginner like me.
As Robsoft says Delphi would be a good start. There is Turbo Delphi (Pascal based) or Turbo C++ both free editions.
web site here.
http://www.turboexplorer.com/
Check out some of the mono libs. They have a great one to parse command line arguments but can't remember the namespace.
Miguel just posted some terminal code as well.
For ncurses-like library/framework on Windows, I'll highly suggest to get your hand dirty with PDCurses.
If you trying/using C#, there's Curses-Sharp.
This is the best tool for it I've ever seen!!
1) Create any application using VB6 IDE
2) Convert it to Console Application, using THIS!