Sorry i'm a beginner,from what i know there are number of varieties of libraries and framework out there provided for the C++ language.My question is,when we create an application using the framework and libraries,do the users of the application need to install the framework or so so call the libraries on his/her PC??Thank You
It depends whether the library you are using is statically or dynamically linked. In the former case, it is part of the executable file that you distribute. In the latter case, it is an extra file (or set of files) with extensions such as .so or .dll, which you should distribute with your app.
Yes, libraries must be bundled with your application/installed before hand, as they are the framework upon which your application relies. If you don't install the framework, your application will not work.
You need to install something, not necessarily the framework. Some frameworks, like DirectX for example have a client installation. Some components are simple dll files that you can deliver with your software, creating an installation package.
The end-user need to have the framework installed.
As you need to have .Net installed to run some Microsoft(and other companies) products. If your application is written in C++ using GTK or Qt. You need to have they installed, but if you're on Linux using KDE, Qt is natively installed for default, the same for Gnome and also the same of Cocoa on Mac and Cocoa-Touch on iPhone and iPod Touch.
I suggest you to have the installer of the framework used embedded on the installer of your application. As GIMP and Xchat do.
Generally when using a framework there will be a framework redistributable (.NET, DirectX, etc) which can be bootstrapped into your installation to install the framework (or run by the end user as the first part of "installing" your app).
Many libraries simply need to be included with your code to function correctly, they themselves might have dependencies which need to be installed but these should be called out.
If in doubt, before you distribute your package run it on a fresh install of your target system (Linux, Windows, etc) and see if it complains about missing dependencies. Include those in your package and try again.
You can also look at installation systems (RPM, Apt, Windows Installer, etc) which can handle all of these tasks for you directly (or provide scripting languages to help you automate the job).
Related
I post the following question at LunarG, as Issue #565, about Vulkan SDK redistributable parts for ready to go applications developed with Vulkan. I'd like to share it with Stack Overflow developers.
Let's say I have Vulkan application demo and wish to send it to
potential clients, in order to evaluate it. If I'd develop it using
SDK, what is the correct way to deploy it :
a) include the compatible SDK installer in a multi-install process ?
b) include some SDK's dlls and companion files ? Which ones ?
It also raises another question: Can I re-distribute SDK files ?
Karl Schultz, from LunarG, replied with the following:
On Windows, many IHVs include the Vulkan loader DLL in their install
packages, placing it in system32/vulkan-1.dll. So, in many cases, your
app might just work fine as long as the user has installed drivers
with Vulkan support.
You might also consider shipping only the RunTimeInstaller, which is
found in the SDK. This would let the user install the run time
(loader) as part of your application install. The RTI includes version
checking so that it doesn't clobber a newer version installed by IHV
drivers, or vice-versa. In short, this is probably the best way to go.
It would be better to include the RTI as part of the "multi-install
process" rather than include the entire SDK.
If your application needs layers or some other specific item from the
SDK, then you'd have to include those explicitly somehow.
Please check the licensing-related files within the SDK concerning
redistribution.
I am making application in Visual Studio C++ 2010 Express Edition.
After I compile the program and then copy the .exe to my friend computer, but when I want to run it, the computer tell me that .NET Framework is needed.
Previously I work with MinGW and it's only console application, when I copy to another computer the program need "libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll" so I just copy that file and it's work.
But when I make the Windows Form Application or Console Application the program need the .NET Framework.
My question is, do my friend have to install the .NET Framework to run my application or I only need to copy one or several files to fulfill my application dependencies?
You need to install the .NET Framework and I suspect the C++ Runtime & Redistributable as well. For any recent system (Windows Vista or newer) you'll find that these are prerequisites of the operating system and that they're almost certainly installed (.NET Framework 3.0 or better). Windows XP shipped with an old version of .NET and would require you to install the newer version of the Framework (Windows Update pushes the framework by default, unless you suppress the installation).
Which version of the framework shipped with which version of Windows can be found here.
There are 3rd party commercial solutions available that can link the whole .NET framework dependency into your application. Salamander .NET Linker is one and the Spoon.NET platform (previously Xenocode) is another. There might be others, but these are the ones I've seen used in the past.
I have a project that requires writing a code for small executable file. I used visual C++ express 2010 IDE to create this file. After I finished writing the code, I tried to copy it to a couple of different PCs. It gives me an error message every time I clicking on this file to execute it. The message states that I have to install (.NET framework). I watched a couple videos on YouTube explaining how overcome this problem by changing the runtime library from multi-threaded Debug DLL (/MDd) to multi-threaded Debug (/Mtd). However; the IDE can’t debug the C++ code because when I create my project by using CLR template!
Is there any way to solve this problem? Can I create a similar program that not requires any further downloading once I using on different PC?
Is learning a different language like JAVA or C# will help creating small programs (like my program) that run on most Window platform machine?
Just use Qt - it runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS, support for Android and iOS is scheduled for this year, plus it supports embedded platforms and some of the more obscure mobile platforms. Also, support for Windows RT was just kickstarted. A complete library with tons of functionality, good documentation and lots of educational resources. It provides tons of tools, from implicitly shared containers through threading, signals and slots, 2D and 3D graphics, widgets, multimedia, sensors... and whatnot...
You can even develop commercial applications under the LGPL license.
Also comes with a pretty good IDE - Qt Creator.
You can develop standard C++ applications or use QML, which is a JavaScript like language for markup and scripting, which is used to build applications from C++ implemented components. You can also extend QML. It is much faster to develop with QML and you still get the advantages of platform native binary under the hood.
Note that you will still need to either ship a few DLLs with your application. Unless of course you use a static build, which requires you to either have your application open source, or purchase a commercial license... which doesn't come cheap...
But still, a few MB of DLLs are far better than the entire .NET framework. A static build will produce executables about 8-9 MB with no external dependencies.
Stick with the C++ standard, avoid Microsoft extensions (managed code), and call only POSIX functions of your OS, then you should be able to write portable programs.
You seem to have created a Managed C++ Project. Instead create an empty Win32 C++ project and then add in your .cpp/.h files. This will limit you to the default libraries available on all PCs with the C++ runtime. If you want to remove that dependency too then statically compile in the runtime using the /MT option. Details # http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2kzt1wy3(v=vs.71).aspx
As you move ahead you would need to be conscious of what libraries you take dependencies on and what versions of the OS are those libraries available on or if you need to package them with your bits.
Both Java and C# will help making portable programs. Usually, people will have to install runtime environments for executables written in these two languages, however. These days, C++ is more portable than ever. You can easily run C++ executables in your browser:
https://github.com/kripken/emscripten
http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
This makes many of the reasons why Java and C# came about irrelevant.
Open standards like OpenGL also make portable GUI programming easier than ever. Try Qt, if you want to write a simple GUI in C++.
Note: It is possible to run C++ program in any computer without installing anything if you haven't use .NET framework. In your case, there can be two reasons to trigger error in target computer.
New computer doesn't have required run-time assembles.
New computer doesn't have required .NET framework installed.
..........................................
So what to do:
Before start your program you have to design weather are you going to use .NET framework support or not. If you use .NET framework when you develop your program, then you much install same or higher .NET framework in target computer.
If you no need to use .NET component then your target computer should only containing run-time assemblies.
How to get rid of .net framework
right click on the project in solution -> properties -> General -> Common language run time support -> select "No common language run time support".
..........................................
Then what you need is only relevant run-time assemblies be in target computer.
How can run-time assemblies be in new computer:
There are two ways:
Install suitable C++ disputable environment in target computer(if you use VS2008 SP1, C++ RD package should be this. Please consider the solution build architecture also (32 bit/64 bit) before download ).
Deploy run-time assemblies with your solution package. (I like this because user no need to install any third party components)
..........................................
How Deploy assemblies with my project:
for this your all DLL, LIB, EXE should use same run time version.(if not, you face troubling to redirect assemblies by 'manifest' files ).
How to check the run-time version.
open DLL,EXE by visual studio (open->file) -> expand RT_MANIFEST-> double click the file under it ->then assembly dependency details will open. -> copy the data in right column and paste to note pad.
You will see this kind of line there. and ther is the version run-time assemblies your specific DLL or EXE use.
assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86".....
After identifying the version of run-time assemblies follow this tutorial and try to run in fresh installed computer.
At last: If you think this bla.. bla.. is so complex and your program is very simple, then you can consider about "run time assemblies statically linking" (try Google). But personally I don't like this method.
good luck!
Am new in Qt Programming and i would like to develop a program which i want to run in Windows, Linux(ubuntu), and Mac.
I heard that Qt support mutli-platform application development,
but my Question is that,
would any Qt library need to run these appilication in Ubuntu after i deployed or compiled?
If you deploy on Ubuntu, and therefore use a .deb package, then your job is easy since you just have to require qt as a dependency and apt will automatically install it as needed.
Windows and Mac however do not have any "good" software management layer, so you have no choice but include the required Qt DLLs with your binary or compile a static one. On Windows you just have to make sure the DLLs are in the same directory as your program. Mac however requires some relinking to be done. This is a big pain, but fortunately Qt comes with a tool named macdeployqt which does this for you.
So according to my experience, Linux is the easiest platform to deploy to, followed by Windows, and Mac is a good last.
The link to the Qt deployment doc given above is a good starting point. If you need an example, I have written a couple of scripts to build the Windows binaries of a program of mine. You can have a look at these to get started.
Windows installer:
http://gitorious.org/tagaini-jisho/tagaini-jisho/blobs/master/pack/win32-cross/buildwin32releases.sh
http://gitorious.org/tagaini-jisho/tagaini-jisho/blobs/master/pack/win32-cross/tagainijisho.nsi
Talking for the Linux side here, if you distribute your application as packages (deb, rpm) then you can use the package dependencies rules. If you define these rules correctly, then the package manager will install the Qt libraries you need when installing your application.
My company is thinking of dumping InstallShield and move to something else, mainly because of the poor experience it had with it, mostly on Linux.
Our product is a C++ application (binaries, shared libraries) targeted at Windows and Linux (Red Hat).
The installer itself isn't required to do anything special, just dump some binaries and shared libraries and sometime execute an external process. Things like version upgrading through the installer isn't necessary, this is handled after the installer finishes.
I thought of suggesting using NSIS on Windows and RPM on Linux.
What are the recommended installer systems to use when deploying to Windows/Linux? Something that is cross platform to prevent maintaining two installers is a definite plus.
For Windows I would definitively use NSIS. It's very lightweight, easy to code and very simple to understand. Using msis would just be a killer - it generates guid for every file so you can get upgrades for free and stuff but truth being said, you never end up using any of these.
Regarding Linux I would go for RPM and Deb. They're probably the two biggest packaging system so you'll be targeting most of the Linux users. I've never tried RPM but creating a Deb package is fairly straightforward.
See also:
What to use for creating a quick and light setup file?
Packaging to use to deploy cross-platform?
And even:
Creating installers for complex cross-platform programs
There's a tool called BitRock Installer which can create installers for Windows, Linux and OS X.
However, I think that if you target RedHat it would be better to provide native packages for that platform (that is .rpm).
For C++ projects, I'd go with cmake/cpack, if you are also willing to change your build system. Great support, strongly cross-platform. cpack has various generators, NSIS is one..
Take a look at InstallJammer. It will handle both platforms from the same build project, and you can have the installer register the package with the RPM database as well if that's your requirement.
You may want to consider our tool BitRock InstallBuilder , it can generate installers for Windows and Linux from a single project file and also RPMs. Is your application based on Qt? Our clients include the makers of Qt, Nokia (previously Trolltech) and they use it to package their Qt Creator product. We encourage to give InstallBuilder a try and contact our support with any questions or suggestions you may have.