Help With Silly, Annoying "What Am I Doing Wrong" Question

[dude69]

Hi all, wow took me ages to find a forum like this!

Im a programming newbie and am stuck. Im currently creating this really simple (I mean really simple) app to help at work.

Its basically a form with several tabs and a single tab inside those. Written on the tabs inside a groupbox is some infomation. No buttons, no dialog boxes etc etc, really simple!

Ive read tuts and guides and am beginning to understand VB, the simple "hello world" one from MSDN was a great starting point but I get stuck on one part - deployment. When I build on my home machine it works, fine not a problem. But I cannot for the life of me get it to work on another machine!

Ive created one in "Visual Basic - Windows Application". Machines at work havnt the .NET Framework installed so the error was expected so i built the same one as a C# project but alas the same

I apologize for the simple question but its driving me crazy! What have I done wrong or what do I need to do to get it working?

Thanks in advance

Heres some shots so you can see it running:

Design Mode
Built App

[Mike Hildner]

Do you mean that your problem is your app won't run on machines that do not have the framework installed? If so, then yeah, they won't. It's a requirement of a .NET managed application regardless of the language. There is no work around besides installing the framework. Newer OS's will ship with the framework installed, so in time it won't be an issue.

[LITHIA]

yep, mike said it.
its a real shame as well... hardly any of my friends can actually use my apps because none of them have the .net framework.

sometimes i wish you could just bundle the classes from the framework that you need in with the exe so that you don't need any crap to run it.

although i am interested in what the hell everything IS programmed in! All these programs on the net, all this software... what exactly is it programmed in anyway? I get no compatability issues, everything works fine how it should be. No missing files - although vb did have this! Funny it would be vb tho aint it! ...

hmm... I don't know much about other languages, but what programming language does not require anything at all? Is it something like Delphi?

[dude69]

Yeah, I expected the error when I built it using the "New Project - Visual Basic Project - Windows Application" option

But I still got it when I used the "New Project - Visual C# Project - Windows Application".

Does building anything using "Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003" require the .NET Framework to run? If so how do I go about making an app that will? (hehe real newbie question)

Im beginning to think Im in over my head here and have got things completely wrong! I just assumed anything built in it would work :s

Thanks

[JeffMvr]

Simply put:

Anything built using .NET technology (including Visual Studio .NET) will require the .NET framework to be installed on the desired machine(s).

[Webtest]

The .NET framwork is a freebie "Run Time Engine" that can be downloaded by anyone from Microsoft. As far as I know, it can be installed on any windows OpSys machine - w95/98/ME etc. - so applications can run there, even though the development environment must be XP/2000 etc.

But you already knew that.

[Mike Hildner]

I've read, but don't know for sure, the Windows 98 is the lowest the framework will run on - that is, no 95. I also think you can create an unmanaged C++ application in Visual Studio that does not require the framework.

If you don't want the framework, or other "run-time" files, then you're eliminating VB.NET, VB, C#, Java and maybe some others I'm not familiar with. If you write in C or C++ (unmanaged) - maybe Delphi?, then you don't need any "run-time" files.

This distinction is a little of the mark, IMHO, because even a C++ program will need files that are already on the machine. It's just that they're already there. In time, the framework will already be there also.

I have not had one client that has a problem with downloading and installing the framework. It's simply part of the minimum specs.

[dude69]

Bugger, looks like its time to speak to our IT people about getting permission to install the framework. They wont like that lol. A guy last week got a really good bollocking about, wait for it...uninstalling MSN Messenger!!!

Well I really could do with it as have got several newstarters next week and itd be a godsend to have something on screen they can have to reference to.

Unless theres an easy way round it? would it be easy to turn to unmanaged C++?

Thanks again for the help guys

[Mike Hildner]

Ridiculous, isn't it. Before too long the framework will come with the OS, so if you install it now, you can tell them that they're "bleeding edge"

Plenty of people write in C++, but it's not for the weak - it's pretty cryptic if you're not familiar with it. I bet you could code the same program in VB (assuming you don't need the functionality of C++) ten times faster.

[dude69]

Yeah too right (thinks back to the Microsoft Monoploy Scandal...hehe)

Pity really as, although a newbie, didnt find the DesignEnviroment too intimidating. Things were fairly easy to see what would do. Obviously you cant jump straight in and code a new OS from scratch lol but Im gonna sit for a bit and see how it goes.

Looking into Delphi at the minute, see if I can knock it up in that for now. Hopefully grab the IT dudes in a good mood in the morning lol

[Webtest]

Aside from the fact that the run time engine is megabytes of megabloat, it does make upgrades smaller and easier. Once the rte is installed, any application can be distributed usually on a single floppy. That, for me, is a nice feature. I only have to get IT to install the rte one time on each machine, and I'm home free!

[dude69]

Aye good point, there is only 6 machines Ill need it on, they cant really moan at that. One time install as well

Bugger it, might just install it anyway see if they notice lol

[drpcken]

Sorry to get off topic, but is that windows blinds you are running to change your startmenu and desktop? Thats awsome!

[dude69]

Its a .msstyle called 'PlexM6'. Apparrantly this one was taken from one of the beta versions of Longhorn. I use StyleXP to run it as had a few problems using the hacked UXTheme.dll for XP :s

Stuck it here for you all. You can get StyleXP from here and Im sure you know how to get around the 'trial'

Im just fiddling with Delphi now, wow so different to VisStu, yet so the same lol

How do I go about creating a unmanaged project then in VisStu?

Cheers

[Mike Hildner]

How do I go about creating a unmanaged project then in VisStu?

When you create a new project, under Visual C++ projects, you have several types. I believe only the type of .NET will require the framework.