Creating an executable

Question

Hi, I want to create an executable program or launcher for the application i have built in java. I want to turn the java class files into something that a inexperienced user could execute simply. Are there tools to do this?
Many thanks.
Martin

Answer 1

Haijsk,
That's a pretty nice trick. Straightforward, and simple to use. The one problem is that it opens a console window under Windows. :-( As a result, you inspired me to write this piece of code:
#include <windows.h>
#define MY_APP_NAME "MyApp"
#define MY_APP_EXEC "javaw -jar myapp.jar"
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
        STARTUPINFO startup_info;
        PROCESS_INFORMATION process_info;
        BOOL valid;
        int result;
        startup_info.cb = sizeof(startup_info);
        startup_info.lpReserved = NULL;
        startup_info.lpDesktop = NULL;
        startup_info.lpTitle = NULL;
        startup_info.dwX = 0;
        startup_info.dwY = 0;
        startup_info.dwXSize = 0;
        startup_info.dwYSize = 0;
        startup_info.dwXCountChars = 0;
        startup_info.dwYCountChars = 0;
        startup_info.dwFillAttribute = 0;
        startup_info.dwFlags = STARTF_FORCEONFEEDBACK;
        startup_info.wShowWindow = NULL;
        startup_info.cbReserved2 = 0;
        startup_info.lpReserved2 = NULL;
        startup_info.hStdInput = NULL;
        startup_info.hStdOutput = NULL;
        startup_info.hStdError = NULL;
        valid = CreateProcess(
                NULL,
                MY_APP_EXEC,
                NULL,
                NULL,
                FALSE,
                CREATE_DEFAULT_ERROR_MODE,
                NULL,
                NULL,
                &startup_info,
                &process_info
        if(!valid)
                result = MessageBox(NULL, "Failed to launch the application. Please make sure that a JVM of 1.3 or higher is installed.", MY_APP_NAME, MB_OK);
        return 0;
}Just change MY_APP_NAME and MY_APP_EXEC to meet your needs and away you go. :-)