Help!

We're at the crux of our project and we need help!
Our program rears it's head again in that fatal area

- DISTRIBUTION!

I know there have been hundreds of posts on
distribution issues and we know where its at,
but this seems a little different.

Our program works fine, but we just can't
reliable get it to install on users machines so that it works.

The issue is this....

Our program is a 16-bit application written in VB4 Enterprise Edition.
We're developing it on a Windows 95 machine but it has to be
16-bit to ensure that our 10% of Windows 3.1 users can use it as well.

We used the set-up wizard to obtain a list of files needed for it to
work which knocked us sideways - it's nearly 3Mb - and that could
kill us as most of our users are downloading of the web and the actual
EXE is only 389K.

Now, there are two parts to this problem.

Firstly, I used the Set-up Kit to make the distribution and send it
to a colleague in the States who had all sorts of problem with
messages about wrong versions of runtimes. He's using Win 95.

I gave him a list of all the DLL's which Set-up Kit said it needed.
He then removed them from his system and re-ran the installer
and it worked O.K.

So, my first question is this - Do some system files on Win95
supersede DLL's that ship with VB4-16bit apps and can
we expect this problem to happen with all Win 95 users?

Are they all going to have to backup some of their system files
to let the VB4 installer put it's older ones in place?

The second issue is in regard to the amount of files needed
to run our application.

I know about making sure that only those controls used should
be included on the custom controls list and we have. Of all the
controls we have, only one is used - Threed16.Ocx. The rest are the
default VB4-16bit toolbar ones.

Now, despite this, the Set-Up Wizard always says that it needs
to install MS Jet files and OLE 2 stuff.

Is this really necessary or can I remove these from the list?

I'm going to attempt to get a hold of a '{*filter*}' system to install the
app on and systematically remove the DLL's until it won't work
but can anyone give me an guidance before hand?

Because of the nature of this post, I'd appreciate replies via e-mail.

Regards

Neil Jedrzejewski

Visit my source code page at http://www.mindspring.com/~johnecarter
Visit my favorite school at http://www.mindspring.com/~addison

---------------------
John Tabor

http://www.kinetic-media.com/users/jtabor

As for other helpful suggestions, nothing concrete except:

Look into Desaware's version control product
http://www.desaware.com

I personally haven't used it, but the testimonials from peers indicate
that the cost of the program is easily recouped in savings on supporting
and debugging setups as you are doing now (also saves lotsa money on
tylenol/paracetemol).

Good Luck.

N Varacalli
--
The views expressed herein do not represent the views of my employer.

The Address in the header is mangled, delete appropriately.

To reach me via e-mail, try
NICHOLAS_VARACALLI at non-hp-Canada-om1.hp.com

HTH,
Bart.

With the latest bloat-ware from Microsoft in VB4/VB5, I don't think
programming for distribution is any fun any more. You just need too
many "clean" machines, different environments, platforms for testing
etc. It's an absolute nightmare.

And what does Microsoft do about this crazy situation?

Nothing. They're too busy integrating Internet Explorer 4 into Windows
95, which will bring a whole new set of problems. This is when half
the business world is still - sensibly - using Windows 3.x.

I tell you, I'm pig-sick of it all.

Mike Mitchell

http://ds.dial.pipex.com/mimi/