Compiling for Windows

[Ray Horsley]

on 9/27/02 7:16 PM, Shari at gypsyware at earthlink.net wrote:

>> MetaCard has its creator and type codes set up to only display Mac
>> files in its open file dialogs. You can still compile for other
>> platforms, but you'll have to type in the engine path manually.
>> Ignore the button that lets you choose an engine.
> 
> You know, I almost tried that... LOL!
> 
> By the way, if any of you have any tidbits to share regarding
> compiling into a standalone, issues you've encountered and the fix,
> etc., let me know and I will include them in the article.
> 
> Shari C

I've encountered two issues in making my Windows App.

The first one is doing something about Window's propensity to open a second
copy of my App if it's double-clicked again after a first copy is already
running (instead of the Mac's more reasonable approach of bringing the first
copy forward).  Richard Gaskin suggested I simply write a file to the
Windows Temporary folder when the App is launched, delete it on quitting,
and check for it on all launches.  So, after looking at a variety of other
work arounds to this, I ended up writing a file to the Temporary folder, get
specialFolder("Temporary"), when my App is launched, then deleting it when
the user quits.  A second launch sees it and produces a "Warning" dialog
asking the user to make doubley sure another copy isn't already running, or
they will get extremey confused, and their computer might blow right up!  I
chose this instead of automatically quitting because an 'improper shut down'
of my App, i.e. somebody training at Florida Power, will in fact leave the
Temporary file there.

The second issue, which I'm still wrestling with, is how to get the
documents for my App to show up on the Windows desktop with the icons I've
assigned to them.  I'm learning it takes a lot more than simply assigning
them in MetaCard's Standalone Builder.  Ken Ray has a wonderful piece on
this at his Sons Of Thunder web site:

      http://www.sonsothunder.com/devres/metacard/metacard.htm?file004

The reason I'm still wrestling with it has more to do with my 'basic' skill
level than with Ken's instructions which are very clear.  It does, however,
require a third party piece of software; the Axialis Icon Maker, I believe.

I hope this is useful to others, and my sincere thanks to Jackie Gay, Ken
Ray and Richard Gaskin for their help regarding these two issues.


Ray Horsley
Developer, LinkIt! Software