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I recently finished an application based on Titanium, Javascript, HTML, CSS. I have only been a web designer to date so I have little experience in distributing applications. I was accustomed to the TiDev Community deploying app, which prepared the app for download and made it available for download at a given link.
But tidev community is no longer supported, so I use TideSDK Developer to package the app, which doesnt do all the hard work the other one did so nicely.
I am obviously a complete rookie to this.
Could anyone outline the steps I would need to take to go from the bundled application folder I have now (put together by TideSDK Developer), to a link that will allow customers to download and install the app or online? I know there is an issue with packaoging the app for platforms other than your own, and that appcelerator is working on a solution to this I think. I also realise I would probably have to pay to host the download online. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
You must use the tidebuilder.py script. to compile a installation package. To compile a binary for a Mac, you must run the script on a Mac, to compile a binary for windows, you must be on a windows box etc.
There is some documentation on how to use it here per platform. The command is very simple and works.
Once you have your application file (DMG for OSX or a MSI for Windows) then just distribute it however you see fit, email, putting it on your web server, whatever works for you.
I have an order entry system which was developed using vb.net it uses an ms access database.
I think I might be able to use mono?
I'll need an IDE if possible.
Can someone tell me what I'll to download and what problems I might face, also any suggestions.
You can use MoMA to determine how well your application will run on Mono. It will analyze the app and tell you of any potential compatibility issues. As far as IDE goes, MonoDevelop would work, but depending on the compatibility with Mono, you might be able to just continue to develop it on Windows. Since Mono is just an implementation of the CLR you may not have to make any code changes at all.
Mono supports ODBC for database connections, but you would have to install an ODBC driver (Such as MDB Tools).
I think I might be able to use mono?
Porting applications can be tricky, generally it can go two ways:
- Get it running with minor tweaks.
- Stop trying and start developing from scratch.
MoMA helps, but you never know for sure until you try :)
Checkout MonoDevelop for Mac OSX:
http://monodevelop.com/
im trying to figure away to be able to export/save user ( banch of files/htmls )
to one single self contained exe file . and i have no idea how to do it .
i was thinking about using windows gcc port , but its GPL and my app is commercial.
how do i approach to solve such thing ?
Thanks
Depending on your feelings about script languages AutoIt might be just the thing for this. Aut2Exe.exe (the compiler) is only 340KB I have done this kind of thing before to make an application that creates other applications. In this post on the AutoIt forums it is explained how to do exactly this with AutoIt. Good luck!
You could make a self extracting exe.
or
You could use vbc or csc from the .net framework, they're shipped as part of the framework (not sure about the new 3.5 client stuff)
try using Advanced Installer for windows...
It is a closed source application for creating .exe,.msi installer files for the applications.
Why GCC when there's a bunch of ways to create self-extracting exe's (and run a command when you extract)?
Commercial example (Zip 2 Secure EXE)
Try IExpress (windows) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd346760.aspx
Run > IExpress
Greetings,
I want to write a small cross-platform utility program with GUI in it. What language/GUI-library should I stick to? Is it possible whatsoever?
This is gonna be a small program, so I don't want to make people download JVM or .NET Framework. Is it possible to develop it natively?
Update 1.
By "natively" I mean that the end result will be native code without intermediate layers like Java Virtual Machine or .NET Common Language Runtime
Update 2.
A FREE solution is preferable ;)
If you know C or C++ the first cross platform GUI framework I can think of are:
QT (C++, proprietary but free with the LGPL licensing)
wxWidgets (C++, the most complete and stable but also huge)
FLTK (C++)
FOX (C++)
IUP (C, simpler and cleaner than the ones above)
If you know Pascal, you can try freepascal+Lazarus. I've never used it, though.
The problem is: If you do not want to have a GUI but you do not want to ask the user to download an eternal API, Framework or virtual machine to run it in, be it TCL/TK, Java or QT etc. then you get lost pretty fast.
The reason is: You would have to rebuild all the (GUI) functionality those APIs, frameworks and virtual machines provide you with to be platform independent. And that's a whole lot of work to do... .
On the other side: The Java virtual machine is installed on nearly any operating system from scratch, why not give this one a shot?
You want to develop a cross-platform program natively? Uh...I don't think that'll work, mainly because that phrase is a paradox. If you write native code, it by its very nature will only run on the platform you programmed it for. ;-) That's what the Frameworks are all about.
So what you should do instead is use a very slim framework if your program is going to be so small. itsmatt's idea of Qt is a possibility.
WxWindows? Oh, it's called WxWidgets now: http://www.wxwidgets.org/
wxWidgets has bindings to all sorts of languages - python for instance, if your app is small enough.
Lazarus is great. GTK2 on Linux, win32/64 on Windows, WINCE on euh, Wince. It even uses Carbon on Mac (working on COCOA). Also easy to sell to your boss (the code is Delphi compatible)
How about Python using Qt or Wx and then using PythonToExe to make a 'distributable'
Thought will have to giving to the development to ensure that no native functionality is used (i.e. registry etc.) Also things like line breaks in text files will have different escape characters so will need to be handled
Which OS's do you have in mind when you say cross-platform?
As Epaga correctly points out, native and cross-platform are mutually exclusive. You can either write multiple versions that run natively on multiple platforms, or you need to use some cross-platform framework.
In the case of the cross-platform framework approach, there will always be extra installs required. For example, many here suggest using Python and one of its frameworks. This would necessitate instructing people to install python - and potentially the framework - first.
If you are aiming at Windows and OS X (and are prepared to experiment with alpha-release code for Linux if support for that OS is required), I'd highly recommend you take a look at using Adobe AIR for cross-platform GUI applications.
I agree with Georgi, Java is the way to go. With a bit of work, you can make your desktop application work as a Java applet too (so that users do not need to actively download anything at all). See http://www.geogebra.org as an example of an application with runs smoothly as a cross-platform Java application AND has a simple port to a web applet.
Two other advantages to using Java are:
They have extensive libraries for building the UI, including UI component builders.
The Java runtime framework is generally updated automatically for the user.
One disadvantage:
The version of Java installed on your end users computer may not be totally compatible with your application, requiring you to code to the lowest likely denominator.
Try RealBasic. Visual Basic-like syntax, targets Win32, OS X and Linux. I don't know any details about targetting Linux, but for any cross-platform development I've done between Win32 and OS X its been a dream.
http://www.realbasic.com
Edit: Generates native executables. There is a small cost - $100.
Have you looked at Qt?
Flash? It's installed pretty much everywhere.
If it "HAS" to be Desktop use Qt. Nothing beats it right now.
However personally I gave up on desktop and any UI based project I do is normally Browser/Server based. You can easily write a little custom server that listens to some port so the program can run locally with no need for your users to install Apache or have access to the net. I have a small Lua, Python and C++ framework I made for that purpose (Want to add Javascript for the backend with V8 :)
If you're going to look at Qt and WxWidgets, don't forget to also check out GTK+ !
I agree with David Wees and Georgi,
Java is cross-platformness par excellence. You literally write once and run everywhere. With no need of compiling your code for each target OS or bitness, no worries about linking against anything, etc.
Only thing is, as you pointed out, that a JRE must be installed, but it's quick and straightforward to do even for novice end-users (it's a matter of clicking "Next>" a few times in the installer).
And with Java Web Start deployment gets even easier: the user just clicks the launch button on a webpage and the application runs (if the proper JVM is installed according to what specified in the JNLP descriptor) or the user gets redirected to the Java download page (if no suitable JVM is found).
I'm interested in looking at Erlang and want to follow the path of least resistance in getting up and running.
At present, I'm planning on installing Erlang R12B-3 and Erlide (Eclipse plugin). This is largely a Google-result-based decision. Initially this will be on a Windows XP system, though I am likely to reproduce the environment on Ubuntu shortly after.
Is there a significantly better choice? Even if it is tied to one platform.
Please share your experiences.
I highly recommend the Erlang mode shipped with the standard Erlang distribution. I've put together a "works out of the box" Emacs configuration which includes:
Syntax highlighting & context-sensitive indentation
Dynamic compilation with on-the-fly error highlighting
Integrated Erlang shell
And more....
You can browse my GitHub repo here:
http://github.com/kevsmith/hl-emacs
I've only done a small bit of coding in Erlang but I found the most useful method was just to write the code in a text editor and have a terminal open ready to build my code as I need to (this was in Linux, but a similar idea would work in Windows, I'm sure).
Your question didn't mention it, but if you're looking for a good book on Erlang, try this one by O'Reilly.
You could also try NetBeans there's a very nice Erlang module available: ErlyBird
Install Erlang: sudo aptitude install erlang
Install a recent JDK: sudo aptitute install sun-java6-jdk
Download and install (the smallest) NetBeans edition (e.g. the PHP one): www.netbeans.org/downloads
download the erlang module ErlyBird: sourceforge.net/projects/erlybird
manually install the modules via NetBeans
ErlyBird features:
syntax checking
syntax highlighting
auto-completion
pretty formatter
occurrences mark
brace matching
indentation
code folding
function navigator
go to declaration
project management
Erlang shell console
I'm using Erlang in a few production systems personally as well at the office. For client side testing, documentation and development I use a MacBook Pro as the OS/platform and TextMate with the Erlang bundle as an editor.
For sever side development and deployment we use RHEL 4.x/5.x in production and for editing I use VIM. Personally, I've got 4 machines (slices on slicehost.com) running Debian using Erlang for a few websites and jobs.
I try to go with the smallest 'engineering environment possible', usually the one with the fewest dependencies from apt or yum.
To add to the Emacs suggestions, I would also recommend that you look at the advantages of distel when running the Emacs erlang-mode.
I've seen answers suggesting TextMate here, so I wanted to add another good Mac OSX tool:
ErlangXCode plugin to XCode.
I've been using this since I started with Erlang and really do like it.
The download link on his blog is broken, here's the real download:
http://github.com/JonGretar/erlangxcode/tree/master
You could also try a virtual server on demand service like this one from CohesiveFT
Select the components you want (e.g. erlangrb12 + yaws + MySQL + erlyweb) and it will build a vm image for you to download or to put onto ec2.
Rolling you own locally is quite straightforward too if you follow the instructions in the pragmatic programmers book Programming Erlang
Just a quick note:
The Erlang "compiling" process described in Ciaran's post (described for Ubuntu 6.10 btw) can be easily skipped using apt command in any Debian based distro:
apt-get install erlang
Do not forget to install these packages if you see it fit:
erlang-doc-html - Erlang HTML document pages
erlang-examples - Some application examples
erlang-manpages - Erlang MAN pages
erlang-mode - editing mode for Emacs
Good Luck!
I like Justin's suggestion, but I'll add to it: this solution is great for learning a language. If you don't rely on something like code-completion, then it forces you to learn the language better. (If you are working with something with a huge API, like Java or Cocoa, then you'll want the code completion, however!)
It's also language-agnostic, and in the case of an interpreted language, particularly one that has an interactive interpreter, you'll probably spend just as much time in the shell/interpreter typing in commands. Even in a large-ish python project, I still work in an editor and 4 or 5 terminal windows.
So, the trick is more about getting an editor which works for you. I'm not about to suggest one, as that's heading towards evangelism!
I just use Scite. Type something and press f5 to see the results.
Just wrote a guide on this on my blog, heres the abridged version:
Part 1: Download what needs to be downloaded.
Download and install the Erlang run-time.
Download and install TextPad.
Download a .syn file for Erlang and place it in the system folder of TextPad. For me, this folder was C:\Program Files\TextPad 5\system. I'm not quite sure who did this syn file (the site is in another language), but they did a good enough job.
Part 2: Set up syntax highlighting.
Open up TextPad. Ensure no files are opened. Go to the 'Configure' menu, and select 'Preferences'. In the preferences window, click 'Document Classes'. There should be a list of currently recognized languages. Click the 'New' button (it is right under the list of languages), and type 'Erlang'. Click apply.
Click the '+' button next to 'Document Classes'. This should expand the list, and Erlang should now be on it. Click Erlang. You should see a list of file extensions associated with Erlang, click 'New', and type '*.erl'.
Now click the '+' button next to 'Erlang' on the left. This should expand a list of several more menus. Click on 'Syntax'. Click the drop down menu and select erlang.syn. If erlang.syn is not there, then the .syn file was not properly placed.
Feel free to edit some other syntax options to customize TextPad to your liking.
Part 3: Compiling from TextPad.
Note: as of 12/05/08 there are severe problems with compiling in textpad. The Erlang shell somehow ignores new compilation when it is done in text pad. This is only useful for checking for errors, when you want to actually run the code, compile it in the Erlang Shell.
In the preferences menu again, click 'tools' on the left.
Click the 'Add' button and select 'Program...'. Navigate to the erl5.6.5\erts-5.6.5\bin\ folder and select erlc.exe. Select and single click the new entry in the list to rename it. Click 'Apply'.
Now click the '+' button next to Tools on the left. Select erlc, or whatever you have named the new tool (I named mine 'Compile Erlang'). The parameters field needs to read '$File', and the initial folder field should read '$FileDir'.
I have had good success with Erlide.
If you use Vim I recommend you Vimerl (http://github.com/jimenezrick/vimerl):
Features
Syntax highlighting
Code indenting
Code folding
Code omni completion
Syntax checking with quickfix support
Code skeletons for the OTP behaviours
Uses configuration from Rebar
Pathogen compatible (http://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen)
From what i've tried (and are still up to do), a good addition to an erlang dev. environment would be a virtual machine running ubuntu/yaws/erlang. Perhaps Erlyweb (erlang/yaws framework) would be nice checking out too.
Ciaran's posts (this would be the first of his "series") about his erlang install is nice, as he details the steps in setting up the server (and other stuff like xmpp with jabberlang).
Since you're switching to Ubuntu eventually anyways, I highly recommend using erlang-mode for emacs (which comes bundled with the Erlang distribution). It is officially what all the core developers use and what many other developers use because of the many features it offers you.
Installing the Erlang distribution itself should be simple :)