I'm not a lawyer, and of course I won't speak for MS, but my guess is that as long as you can show that the only people downloading setup 3 are those who have downloaded one of the other 2, then there shouldn't be much fuss. But if some are getting just the runtime files, not in connection with your application (the way the VB runtimes have been available in the past), then I think you may have some trouble.

I do think '3.1.1 a)' is clear enough that it would be hard to argue a way around it.

Alan

>Well, I think of creating three setup files. The first setup file includes the runtime files, the second one is for people who know they already have the runtime files. The third contains the runtime files only and is for people who downloaded the second one and only then discovered that they missed the runtime files. That _download_ is also useful if some service pack makes it necessary to update the user's runtime files. You doubt the legal aspect of that third file. Personally, I think if it's downloadable on the same webpage as the other two, than there won't be a real problem. Anyway, I might decide to create only variants 1 and 2. Wonder what MS thinks of this...
>
>>>Hi Hilmar,
>>>You're right that it can be shrinked somewhat. So, 2 Mb for the runtime files, plus upto 1 Mb for the installer, plus - let's say - 1 Mb for the real application, that totals up to 4 Mb. That's a lot, compared to, for example, Delphi applications.
>>>
>>>Your other note is remarkable. Personally, I'm not aware of a restriction with regard to distribution rights of the runtime files. AFAIK, we're free to distribute those files!
>>
>>As I understand it, you are free to distribute those files as part of a vfp app distribution. You cannot just send out the runtime files by themselves to everybody. Your distributed VFP app doesn't have to do much of anything, but it has to be part of the distribution.
>>
>>See 3.1.1 (a) in the license agreement.
>>
>>Alan
>>
>>>
>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>>The past days I've been to a _conference_ for shareware makers (http://www.euroconference.org). Reason is that I've developed a shareware application that has to be brought to the market. It's written in VFP7. Are there others who've done so, or have plans for doing so? Contact is appreciated. But in case no one is interested in contact, here's a 'chatter' statement:
>>>>>
>>>>>- VFP is inappropriate for shareware development, due to the fact that the runtime dll alone already implies a _download_ of 3,5 Mbyte.
>>>>
>>>>With compression (I tried the CAB format, with PowerArchiver version 6, which was freeware), you can reduce the two required DLLs (I will assume you don't need ODBC) to less than 2 MB - still a lot.
>>>>
>>>>Note that in VB the situation is very similar: you need a large runtime. However, there are two significant differences: 1) VB is used on a larger scale; many users have the runtime already, and 2) AFAIK, the VFP license still forbids you to distribute the runtime separately, and it is not available from MS.
>>>>
>>>>Hilmar.