No More Runtime Files

[Vlatko]

There is a great Program that compiles a vb project and makes a standalone EXE file. It puts all dependecies into that file.It also copies the MSVBVx0.DLL into the system directory.It is called FUSION and you can download it from
http://www.bit-arts.com

But is it worth it.
The EXE is then about 1MB big and it takes up ore RAM and is more difficult to distribute the program.

What do yo think? - Is it worth it?

It's a nice program. I don't use it. But if you distribute a lot of programs and don't want to include the dlls. Here is a program that is like a self-extracter, it's kind of like it, acutally.

Active Self-Extract

Or you could try joining files together:

Public Function JoinFiles(Source1 As String, Source2 As String, _
   Dest As String) As Boolean
   
   On Error GoTo errorhandler
   Dim Buffer() As Byte
    
   

   Open Source1 For Binary Access Read As #1
   Open Source2 For Binary Access Read As #2
   Open Dest For Binary Access Write As #3
   
   ReDim Buffer(1 To LOF(1))
   Get #1, , Buffer
   Put #3, , Buffer
   
   ReDim Buffer(1 To LOF(2))
   Get #2, , Buffer
   Put #3, , Buffer
   
   Close #1, #2, #3
   JoinFiles = True
errorhandler:
    Close #1
    Close #2
    Close #3
Exit Function

I never used that code, but it might work when including dlls in files.

how are you going to run that if you dont have Msvbvm60.dll ?

[oetje]

Compile it with QB.

C++ would be better

[parksie]

To join files, just use:

c:\myfolder> copy /b file1+file2+file3 file

To append file1, file2, and file3 into file.

how do you rip them apart?

[parksie]

You need a separate program for that, but I'm sure it can't be too hard to write one in VB.

when you join the files together does it keep all of the EOF characters(3 for 3 files) or does it only have one because its one file now?

I believe you could use Compress.exe and Extract.exe to put all the files together into one file and then extract them out of that file. Just as Winzip does .

[parksie]

I think compress can only compress one file at a time.