.exe for distribution


Hi all, I’ve recently finished writing my first game for the command line using Notepad++ and the MinGW compiler (I’ve noticed that many people use an IDE of some kind, but I’ve deliberately avoided this to get a better understanding of how to build a program from the ground, up).

FYI, I’m using the Windows 7 home premium OS. The game is BattleShip, written with strings and basic control structures; and I use keyboard symbols to draw up the grid in the command line. It looks as basic as Pong, but works just fine.

I would like to distribute the game among a few friends but my .exe file won’t run on another computer. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what additional material I need to include with my source code (header files, DLL files, etc…) to accomplish this?

Ideally, I would love to run it on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. Would appreciate any help on the matter (and remember: nothing IDE specific please).

Cheers for taking the time to read this.
When you deploy an application, you must also deploy the files that are required to support it.
-msdn, Redistributing Visual C++ Files

An executable that depends on other files that are local to your machine may not be found by theirs. Likely the use of certain header files, .dll and external references, including Microsoft Standard C++ Library Header files. (See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a7tkse1h(v=vs.80).aspx)

You could try just supplying them with your whole project file, being that your program should look in its current directory for project-specific files. I don't think that will work though, and please excuse my stupidity in that case.

What you should probably read up and learn about: Deployment.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zebw5zk9(v=vs.80).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235316(v=vs.80).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235297(v=vs.80).aspx
give your friends your source code and have them compile it on their computer
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