Creating
an
EXE

Because an EXE is a totally stand-alone component, it requires at least a message file to allow it to print out certain messages.

This is the simplest way to get started.

1. Create a Project directory for your Smalltalk MT project (e.g. MyProject). This directory will contain the project file or files(e.g MyProject.sp or MyProject.spx)

2. Create the resources. Go into the GUI Builder and select File menu->New->Resource script and point to your project directory. Select the things you need (typically About Box, Application Icon, Message File, Version resource). This will create a res folder in your project directory.

3. Compile the resources. With a command window, go to the res folder under your project. Type NMAKE. This will build a DLL with the same name as your project (important!). This DLL contains the resources you specified in step 2. This will only work if you have C/C++ installed.

4. In your project folder, create a winmain.sm file which contains the instructions to start your application. There are lots of examples of these in the samples.

5. Load your project into STMT and build the exe. The winmain.sm will be loaded and compiled, and all of the resources from the resource DLL (in the res subdirectory) will also be loaded into your EXE.

The resulting EXE will be placed in your STMT image directory by default.

What if you don't have C++? This means that you cannot use the NMAKE command to create a resource DLL. In that case, you can use one of the resource DLL's provided with STMT.

Look in <install dir>Smalltalk MT 4\Samples\Tutorial\Intro\GenApp\res and you will find GenApp.DLL

This DLL contains 6 resources. Namely an About Dialog, Large and Small Icon, a Message Table, a String Table and a Verion resource. Take this DLL and place it into the res directory for your project. Then rename the DLL to your project name (e.g. MyProject.DLL). It must be the same name as the project for the STMT project builder to find it.

Now do step 4 and 5 to create your EXE.