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After you write your program, test it, debug it, and write a Help file for it, the final step is to give or sell copies of your program to others. Although you can copy your program onto a CD or DVD and force buyers to manually copy your program to their hard drive, doing so can cause problems. Users may not copy all the files correctly. Even worse, forcing users to manually copy your program to their hard drives may prove such a nuisance that most people won’t bother even using your program.

To make copying a program to a user’s hard drive as easy as possible, most commercial programs include a special installation program. Users run this installation program, which automatically copies a program and all necessary files to the appropriate location on the user’s hard drive. By making the installation of a program practically foolproof, software publishers make sure that users install the programs correctly.

So the final step to distributing your program to others is to use a special installation-creation program, which can smash all your program files into a single file that can automatically install itself on another computer.

Installation programs offer the following features for distributing programs to others:

•  File compression: Most programs are fairly large, which means that they can’t always fit on a single CD. Rather than store your program on multiple CDs, an installation program can smash your files so that they can fit on a single disc.

• Display graphics and play sounds: Installing a program usually takes a few minutes while the computer copies files from the CD to its hard drive. Rather than force the user to stare into space, an installation program can display advertisements or messages to make the installation process mildly interesting. Other uses for graphics include displaying an hourglass icon or a status bar that shows how far the installation is complete, such as 54 percent complete. That way, users know how much longer they need to wait.

•  Simplify the copying process: Most important, an installation program simplifies copying your program to the user’s hard drive, making the entire process accurate, fast, and foolproof.

Remember The first impression that people get from your program is through its installation process, so an installation program helps give your program a professional appearance.

Of course, you need to make sure that your installation program installs your program correctly, or the first impression that users get from your program will be a highly negative one.

Armed with all these different tools (editor, compiler, debugger, Help file creator, and installation program), you’re ready to write, test, and distribute your programs. Who knows? You just might wind up writing a new category of software that nobody ever thought of before, like 19-year-old, college dropout Shawn Fanning did when he created Napster, which revolutionized the way the world distributes music and video files.

If a kid who didn’t even finish college can change the world by writing a single computer program, just think what you can do with your imagination.

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