Delivering Dylan Applications

Applications you have written using Open Dylan need access to Open Dylan’s run-time libraries in order to run. This applies to all applications, whether executables or DLLs. The run-time libraries are normal Win32 DLLs, stored in the top-level installation folder Redistributable.

When you run an application on a machine where Open Dylan is installed, the libraries will be found in Redistributable, whether you run the application from the command line or from within the Open Dylan environment using commands such as Application > Start.

But to deliver your Dylan application to a customer or other third party, you will need to include in your distribution the Open Dylan run-time libraries that the application uses.

This chapter discusses how to deliver Dylan applications with the necessary run-time libraries using the environment to build a Release folder.

Building a release folder

To create a single folder containing everything necessary for your application to run on a customer’s machine, use the Project > Make Release command in the project window.

This command takes the compiled application files associated with the project, and whichever Open Dylan run-time libraries (DLLs) are necessary for the application to run, and copies them into the Release subfolder of the project’s own folder.

You can then distribute the entire Release folder as a stand-alone application. Read the Open Dylan license agreement for details of the legal side of redistributing the Open Dylan run-time libraries.

About the run-time library DLLs

The run-time library DLLs have 8.3 format names and include a version number. This version number will be incremented for new releases of the run-time libraries.