Exploring A Single File Deploy on Windows

[Richard Gaskin]

Dan Friedman wrote:

 > With LC 8.1 and later, we’re now using tsNet rather than libURL.
 > That’s fine.  However, a Windows standalone that uses tsNet cannot
 > even launch unless tsNet.dll is in the same directory as the
 > standalone.exe.  This makes deploying a single file on Windows
 > impossible.

The others here have offered good suggestions for suck-up-and-spit-out 
solutions to solve the problem for now. but looking ahead:

One of the things I liked about SuperCard was that Bill Appleton had 
written his own resource fork into his data file format.  This allowed 
SC to store any number of data and even code (XCMDs and DFCNs) within 
the data fork, without relying on the Mac's old file system resource fork.

I really really really prefer to deliver truly stand-alone standalones 
whenever practical, but with more and more new features being 
implemented in bundled externals the number of apps I can do this for is 
shrinking with each release.

Would it be worth considering some means of being able to store 
externals directly in the stack file?

What magic is dependent on having an external be a separate file on disk?

Couldn't the entry point for that code be found at least as easily (and 
perhaps slightly more efficiently) if stored within the stack file?

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com