02-16-2005, 01:59 AM
Quote:Firstly, those dll's are something you could never avoid. While I am not too knowledgeable in raw win32 programming, even a c program would have to include those dlls that antoni showed, right?
Not at all, those dll are required by vb just to run. You can download from MS site a terminal program programmed in C that compiles in a single 60K exe and runs in every freshly installed (no hidden dll coming from elsewhere) version of Windows from 95 to XP. It uses only what comes in the windows setup.
The problem with that is you must code everything using windows API, a daunting task.
To avoid this some systems as VB or PB or Delphi use intermediate librairies to wrap the windows API. That librairies make the ease of use of those compilers.
Only Delphi and PB compilers make a standalone programs by picking only the
library routines the program uses. This makes a 350-400K single file executable. (the only problem is Delphi is Pascal, but that's another story
)The problem with VB is the compiler is unable to pick only the routines the executable will use, you must carry the complete library with you.
I wonder, in the case of the listing of my previous post why the heck a program consisting in a comms routine and a dialog needs the jet database dll...Perhaps a bad use or a poor design of the setup wizard...
When people designs an office app, they target the acoountant's computer, a clean machine with only Windows and Office installed, where carryying around some megs of runtimes is not a problem.
But I work for a company installing Building Management Systems (BMS), with the mission of making devices from differnt origins communicate with our SCADA PC. I must work in PC's set temporally over the top of a cable roll, carrying around programs from different suppliers in USB Drives.
Each supplier (including Trend Controls from UK) has developed their programs in different times. I can't afford to carry around 5mb of cab files for each differnt program. VB is not a serious tool in this case, but everyone uses it because it's easy...
You VB programmers think you will be asked for an update of your programs every time Bill Gates issues a new version, but you're wrong:The program will be used until a new computer can't run it. So people has to mangle with VB3, VB4, VB5, VB6 and NET framework every day.
VB has just charmed IT managers because it allows my grandmother to program "Winhello" and it has controls for every Windows and Office area, it saves millions of dollars in developement.
But it's stupidly BLOATED.
Antoni