Minimum files to run smp app

[JD Kromkowski]

I’ve written a tiny card game for the benefit of children in extended Kromkowski family. I want to let them play at home.

What is the minimum amount of files that I’d have to include for them to run the .smp.

What are rules for distributing an app like this which is basically educational not for profit activity.

Installation tips. Free installer?

JDK

[Michael]

This stuff is documented in the Quick Start Guide, here is a link to the current online version: http://www.simpol.com/docs/quickstart/intro_deployingprogs.html. As for a free installer, we switched with the 2.0 release to the INNO installer. Should be pretty easy to get one running for a SIMPOL runtime program. Just be aware that if they install to Program Files that you can’t store and user-modifiable data there (Program Files and below is read-only to users as of Vista). If you need to store data, then follow up in here.

[JD Kromkowski]

Thanks. I’ll review. No data being stored. I do read from a table that holds basic deck of cards, but I would even need to do that, I could just load deck into array.

Another likely dumb question. I have 53 png s for cards (one back). Would it make more sense to convert these to blobs in an images.sml. Is there a png to blob converter somewhere in SBNG.

I know most game apps are written in Java, and here is my I’m-not-really-a-programmer (can I still say that 20+ years later) mentality: Can a Simpol/Superbase app be distributed as an app for android or iphone/ipad? Maybe I should email you directly. It’s a silly game (played by Italian Americans in one small midwestern community. It may be down my extended family.)

JDK

[Michael]

Hi John,

The converter might work with pngs, but pngs have a few issues in SIMPOL when saved as blobs (having to do with transparency and the alpha channel). If you save them as BMP you can convert them with the tool we supply in the utilities directory: saveimagetoblobgui.smp.

Ciao, Neil

[JD Kromkowski]

Inno setup 2.0? Aren’t they on version 5. Is there something about 2.0 than makes it better? I’ve never used an installer.

[Michael]

No, we are using Inno Setup 5 and Inno Script Studio 5. We switched to Inno setup when we release version 2.0 of Superbase NG.

Ciao, Neil

[jaszczak]

In the prior release we used to run our production .smp program by linking to the .exe in the \redist directory, but in the new release it seems we can only run .smp if the .exe and other redist files are moved to the \bin folder where the .smp, data and form files are all kept. Is that right, the files from \redist should be moved to the \bin directory with the .smp and other files?

[Michael]

The normal approach on a machine that doesn’t have SBNG installed is to copy the smpwin32.exe, the necessary DLLs, and the *.smp to a specific directory and then run it from there, typically using a link to the smpwin32.exe that includes the name of the *.smp as an argument to the smpwin32.exe and the path to that folder in the starting directory section of the link.

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