Make a sharable EXE

[answer]

would it be ok if I make a "shareable exe" which is a striped down of the editor that only "plays" an animation. Then copy all the animation data into the end of the sharable exe data.

Finaly to find the data I simply search for a magic string that is used to begin the animation data block (around 256 char to be as unique as possible) and calculated in the shareable exe so that the magic string does not appear anywhere in the shareable exe without it animation block being copied.

All of this is so the end user can create an animation and export a "shareable" exe file which does not require any installation and related but one file for another user to open to view the animation.

I tried a hello world on a linux machine and it worked. Will it work on a windows machine? and is this a good or bad idea?

[ninja9578]

Sure that sounds like it would work. Have your program output C code, then call gcc on your file and share. Of course exe files only work on Windows.

[answer]

I dont want to output C code. The end user doesnt want like a whole dev environment set up. I'm thinking for the shareable exe (share.exe) make a copy of it, and append the animation to the share.exe file. And thats what the end user shares.

I need to try it on a windows machine, but it works on a linux machine. Though I dont know what implications this has like the propram (share.exe) will be a few megs but the animation could be like 10-30megs depending on the images and so forth.

I guess I'm going to eventually try it and if anyone does make an animation thats too big I'll be happy cause it would mean lots of people are using it

[Chris_F]

Why use a 256-byte header? Why not just use a fixed pointer, and alter the pointer after you compile the program to point directly to the data?

Or better yet, simply add it as a resource.

[answer]

I didn't think of the pointer idea. I dont even know how to do that.

I cant add it as a resource cause the animations will be created after the program is created. in other words an artist will use the program to creates animations but not everyone will have the program and the artist may wish to share there animation/presentation. So I thought to create a shareable exe or have the other person install a "viewer" version of the app.

To me having a "shareable" exe seems kind of cool. I dont know if its such good idea, it looks good to me, and makes it easier for the artist to share as the other person will just open up the exe and everything is there. Removes the hasle of going online and downloading a viewer.

[Chris_F]

Well, you could have a pointer:

void* animation = (void*)0xDEADBEEF;

Then, after you append the data to the executable, find the pointer and change it to the address of the animation data.

[answer]

Thats so simple I dont know why I didnt think of it. And because I will always append the animation to the end I can just change it once in the share.exe file. Then the main app just has to make a copy of share.exe and append the data.

[ninja9578]

I think this is not the solution you are looking for. For one, you can only share on Windows, and even works, only the same type of Windows that the original was compiled on. Try that on compiling something on Windows XP and sharing it on Windows 7 x64, won't work.

I don't know why you don't want to just share your animation as a GIF, or a Quicktime movie, or even HTML5

[Xupicor]

That doesn't seem "cool" at all to me, having a "viewer" program and your own/already known file format would seem better. You know, not everybody trusts ".exe" files from other people. Viruses like exe files.
Can you make sure your "shareable" exe want be infected by one? It would also mean that a fair amount of those artists could think your program is actually a virus.

Saying that downloading the viewer program is a hassle is not actually an argument, because you can also share the animation with the viewer if you really want to, in one archive.
Besides, if somebody is sharing it through internet, then he/she can download the viewer too, and from a trustworthy source, like your own site, right?

There's little to gain by doing this, in my opinion.

[ninja9578]

Requiring a download of a viewer will make sure that no one looks at your stuff. Why do you think .rar archive format is not used, even though it offers better compression than .zip or .gz? Because when people see something in a .rar file, they move on and search for the same thing in zip because they den't feel like finding a decompressor.

[hoxsiew]

Sounds like one of those cracker-ish keygen.exe type things that you find one warez sites. Obnoxious graphics and noise to show off how cool the cracker is. Usually crawling with trojans once it ends up in the wild.

[Chris_F]

Requiring a download of a viewer will make sure that no one looks at your stuff. Why do you think .rar archive format is not used, even though it offers better compression than .zip or .gz? Because when people see something in a .rar file, they move on and search for the same thing in zip because they den't feel like finding a decompressor.

That sounds like a personal preference. I know plenty of people who wouldn't care about .rar format . I personally could care less because 7zip handles it just as well as anything else.

I agree with Xupicor in that passing around .exe's is a bit of a taboo. I don't know what these animations are, but if they are worth watching, then it's worth taking a few seconds to download the player.

[ninja9578]

You also always have this option: www.youtube.com

:P