Creating an Evaluation Program (.exe)

Pocket Dyalog supports a mechanism for creating and distributing evaluation applications. An evaluation application can be configured to expire after between 0 and 90 days from the date on which it is installed on a PDA.

Whenever an evaluation application is started, a message box notifies the user how many days of the evaluation period remain. After this evaluation period, a message box is displayed notifying the user and the application will refuse to start.

The period of evaluation and the contents of the two message boxes are specified by you when you create the evaluation program (.exe) as described below.

Note that you can obtain the number of days before expiry when your evaluation application is running, from the value of the EvaluationDays property of Root.

Creating an evaluation program file myapp.exe

	To create an evaluation version of your program, simply check the Evaluation Application checkbox in the Make Executable dialog box. Then, enter the length of the evaluation period in days. This value may be between 0 and 90 days. The defaults is 30. An evaluation period of 0 days means that the application will run until the end of the day on which it is installed. Note that the Runtime executable should normally be checked too. You should only leave it unchecked if you want to make an executable for test purposes. For example, you might have some logic that depends upon whether or not your application is running in evaluation mode, and you want to create a debuggable program to test it. When you click OK, you will be prompted for additional information as described below.
	This dialog box allows you to specify the Title and Text of a Message Box that will be displayed when your evaluation application is started. If the string %i is included in the Text field, the number of days remaining of the evaluation period will be inserted at this location in the text.  The Test button allows you to view the Message Box at this time. Press OK to continue to the next dialog box, and set the Expiration Details for this application.
Expiration Details
	This dialog box allows you to specify the Title and Text of the Message Box to be displayed once the evaluation period for the application has expired. Again, the Test button can be used to display the Message Box.