I wrote a nice application, now how do I distribute to someone? 1

[Guest_imported]

I have written a nice application,now how do I distribute it. I have read a few books now and it doesnt mention anything about how to distribute your application.
Can we distribute the application we create at all?
or does everyone that want to use the applicatin will have
to open and using the application in Jbuilder or something?
Im confused. CAn someone enlighten me?
I came from C++ field and new to java. I am use to
distributing application by compiling it into an exe.
But for Java its a mystery to me. How do we distribute
application? Are we only limited to distributing applets?
And in C++ the file we execute has an exe extension.
What is the equivalent file in java?

 

[daniel135]

check out the JAR documentation:

http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/docs/guide/jar/

An Applet is a convenient way to distribute your application to people that likely won't have the JVM installed, otherwise, a simple JAR will do. A few people here have asked about making .exe files with Java, but no one has found an answer yet.

 

[daniel135]

oops... this is a more appropriate link:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar/

 

[godcomplex]

A jar file is the way to go, if you are interested in building a exe from java code, take a look at this thread:

thread269-276852

-gc "I don't look busy because I did it right the first time."

 

[daniel135]

I thought the debate had been settled. Thanks for the links, godcomplex!

 

[Guest_imported]

I am dissapointed with java on this issue of not being able to easily create an executable file. Other than that
the language is great compared to MS C++. Maybe we should start a petition to get Sun Microsystem to include some sort of function to easily compile java into an exe for their next release o fJava. When that day comes that is when I'll be done with C++.

 

[godcomplex]

I doubt this day will ever come. It would violate one of the core functionalities of JAVA. The idea is to allow code to be compiled once, and run anywhere. Creating an exe would mean you need to compile your software to native code, which would take away the ability to run the code anywhere except for the os the program was compiled for. If you are just interested in a easy way to launch your program, there are methods available. You could easily distribute a jvm with your program and then include with your software a bat file if on windows, or a shell script if on unix to make the calls to the java.exe to launch you program.

-gc "I don't look busy because I did it right the first time."