7.1 Packaging
The first issue you must consider
when dealing with a standalone application is its packaging. End
users are used to loading a CD, installing a program, and then
clicking an icon that launches the application. These users of
desktop software typically don't want to deal with
lots of configuration files and subdirectories, or with components of
an application scattered all over a hard drive. Developers, however,
need to be able to create applications with some degree of
sophistication, which often means including a large number of files
in a single distribution of an application. Trying to balance these
conflicting desires is the first goal in application packaging.
7.1.1 Packaging on Windows
The latest versions of Java
support a more or less cross-platform approach through the Java JAR
mechanism, whereby JAR files are launched by an application
distributed as part of the JDK. On Windows, this application is
called javaw, and is also used to launch Java
applications for which one does not want a DOS terminal to appear.
The "double-clickable JAR" approach
lacks sophistication, however. For example, it has no support for
defining an icon, for binding the application to specific documents,
or other application packaging details. These deficiencies lead to a
less than stellar user experience.
7.1.2 Packaging on Mac OS X
Native
Mac OS X applications, on the
other hand, use a specific application packaging format for
delivering desktop applications. At the core of this format, the base
desktop navigation user interface (the Finder) maintains the illusion
that directories with specific names or settings should be treated as
applications. There are no fancy resource forks to be dealt with, and
generally, application directory packages can be copied across
foreign filesystems without damage.
This chapter looks at how to build double-clickable applications and
how to create Mac OS X directory packages.
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