Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, Third Edition

Chapter 23. Distributing Your Applications

In This Chapter

• Issues Surrounding Software Distribution

• Distribution Used to Be Easy

• Windows Application Distribution

• Deploying Your Application

• After Generating the Setup

• More Helpful Tools

After you write, test, and debug a program, you must get it into the hands of users. One of the problems with the software industry is a lack of installation standards for new software. Although Windows provides some uniformity for installing software, not all software producers conform to that standard.

This chapter introduces you to the problems associated with software distribution. You want to be sure that your users find it easy to install the programs you write. Today's distribution tools help a lot when it comes ...