Files to distribute with your application

At a minimum, you must distribute

•	an executable;

On UNIX, the executable is abt or esnx or nodialog

On Windows the executable is abt.exe, esvio.exe or nodialog.exe

•	a reduced runtime image (.icx) or, if you are packaging with image components, a startup Image Component (.ic file);

•	an INI file.

You must always specify (or default to) an INI file when running VA Smalltalk. The INI file can:

1.	have the same name and be in the same directory as your executable;

Note:

The execuatable can be copied to the same directory as the INI file and renamed to match the reduced runtime image (or startup image component);

2.	have the same name and be in the same directory as your reduced runtime image (.icx) or, if you are packaging with image components, your startup Image component (.ic file);

3.	be specified as a command line parameter. For example, you can launch your program on Windows by typing the following:

abt -imyapp.icx -ini:c:\myDirectory\any.ini

the UNIX equivalent is

abt -imyapp.icx -ini:\myDirectory\any.ini

Refer to the VA Smalltalk web site for a list of the files you need or can distribute with your packaged application. (See Redistributable Runtime Files.) More complicated reduced runtime images may need more resources. Server Runtime (available on Instantiations download page) can be used to start a directory of resources.

Remember that an application that does not access VA Smalltalk code will not be required to include VA Smalltalk files (prefaced with abt) for distribution.

Choosing your executable

All the executables will launch your application. Why not just stick with abt? .abt shows splash screen while launching and allows your application to use a GUI. If your application has a user interface, but you do not wish to show a splash screen, choose esvio (or esnx on Unix). If your application is headless, choose nodialog.