Windows 98 Through Windows Vista Programming.

[Jon Turlington]

I need to develop a CD slpash screen that runs without having to
install any frameworks, runtime environments, etc.

Can someone recommend a language to do this, I know VB, know Java(a
little and can learn it quickly), C/C++ is a bit foreign to me but I
think I could handle it.

Need unbiased opinions.

Jon Turlington

 

[Brandon McCombs]

I need to develop a CD slpash screen that runs without having to
install any frameworks, runtime environments, etc.

Can someone recommend a language to do this, I know VB, know Java(a
little and can learn it quickly), C/C++ is a bit foreign to me but I
think I could handle it.

Need unbiased opinions.

Jon Turlington

well java is going to need a runtime environment. You will probably be
limited to Microsoft's MFC since its libraries are already in Windows
but needing to support just about all version of Windows back to 98 may
require additional code since the API has changed over the years.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

I need to develop a CD slpash screen that runs without having to
install any frameworks, runtime environments, etc.

Scratch Java off the list then. It is on many
older machines, and most modern systems,
but it will never be on all.

Need unbiased opinions.

Get over your '100% solution with no RE' attitude.
That is impractical and unattainable.

Once you get beyond that, you might look
to a web start launch for the older Java
based machines (JWS includes a splash
functionality), or use Java 6.0 for the most
modern PC's.

As an aside, these are all providing splash
screens for Java applications and applets, rather
than 'a CD' as such. You might be able to
invoke the 'splash application' at disk load though..

Andrew T.

 

[Luc The Perverse]

As an aside, these are all providing splash
screens for Java applications and applets, rather
than 'a CD' as such. You might be able to
invoke the 'splash application' at disk load though..

If all he wants is a splash screen - you could do this in C/C++ win32 API
and it would run no problem on all desired platforms - though to avoid
writing or illegally copying JPG decompression code - you will find yourself
using Bitmaps. (Or - since he doesn't know C++ very well he could hire
someone pretty cheap at one of those places like rentacoder or similar. I
suggest embedding the image in the EXE file itself) Definitely test on
EVERY version of windows you can find though - cause you never know when MS
will throw you a curve ball.

As for the application itself . . that would be a little silly to not
require a framework.

I had a link for a tutorial to make CDs autorun on windows once. Don't
remember where it was, but I think all you need to do is add some file
called Autorun (or similar) to the root directory with run information in
it.

 

[Stefan Schmiedl]

Scratch Java off the list then. It is on many
older machines, and most modern systems,
but it will never be on all.

But the OP can put it on the CD and use a starter executable
to run the app directly off the CD without any previous
installation.

You could probably pack some 1.3.x JRE on the CD, but
honestly, a multi-megabyte JRE just for displaying a
splash screen seems a little bit over-the-top to me.

I'd recommend PureBasic for building a tiny standalone
win32 executable. If you're careful with the APIs you use,
you should be fine on every Win9x or later.

Get over your '100% solution with no RE' attitude.
That is impractical and unattainable.

Not if you use the right tools and limit yourself
to Windows systems in the "Win9x, WinNT and newer class".

Finally, there should be *many* "CD menu" applications
out there ... I dimly remember using one about 5 years
ago, where you could choose different skins and define
a few actions via a .ini file.

s.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

Not if you use the right tools and limit yourself
to Windows systems in the "Win9x, WinNT and newer class".

As hard as this may be to believe, CD's are
also supported on systems like MacOS and
Linux, nowadays.

Andrew T.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

As hard as this may be to believe, CD's are
also supported on systems like MacOS and
Linux, nowadays.

But given the subject line (which I missed)
'Windows 98 Through Windows Vista Programming.',
your point was quite logical.

(I'm with you now, if somewhat late.)

Andrew T.

 

[Stefan Schmiedl]

But given the subject line (which I missed)
'Windows 98 Through Windows Vista Programming.',
your point was quite logical.

(I'm with you now, if somewhat late.)

I had to restrain myself from replying "no autostart on *my* linux box"
several times, too

s.

 

[Oliver Wong]

As hard as this may be to believe, CD's are
also supported on systems like MacOS and
Linux, nowadays.

The subject line hints that the OP is only interested in Win98 to Win
Vista (i.e. lack of support for Win3.1, Linux and MacOS is tolerable).

- Oliver

 

[Chris Uppal]

I had to restrain myself from replying "no autostart on *my* linux box"
several times, too

Come to that, there's no autostart on any of my Windows boxes...

-- chris

 

[Andrew Thompson]

I had to restrain myself from replying "no autostart on *my* linux box"
several times, too

I 'save up' my restraint for c.l.j.help. ;-)

Andrew T.

 

[ck]

I need to develop a CD slpash screen that runs without having to
install any frameworks, runtime environments, etc.

Can someone recommend a language to do this, I know VB, know Java(a
little and can learn it quickly), C/C++ is a bit foreign to me but I
think I could handle it.

Need unbiased opinions.

Jon Turlington

I guess you can do this using flash. Export the flash movie to .exe
and write an autorun script. I presume that you already know how to
write autorun else refer to http://www.phdcc.com/shellrun/autorun.htm

 

[Stefan Schmiedl]

Come to that, there's no autostart on any of my Windows boxes...

"You're lucky! Full moon tonight." -- nethack

s.