ActivePatch PatchFile Control

Description

The ActivePatch PatchFile control allows you to create and apply individual patch files on the local system.

Reference

File Name

APATCH.OCX

Object Type

PatchFile

Remarks

The PatchFile control can be used in an application to create individual patch files, as well as apply those patch files on a local system. Unlike simple data compression, creating a patch involves analyzing the differences between two files at the byte level, and generating a set of instructions that will convert one file into another. Typically, a patch is created to update an older version of a file with a newer version. Because only the differences between the file are stored in the patch, the difference in size can be significant, in some cases achieving a 90% or better compression ratio.

Requirements

The PatchFile control is designed for the 32-bit Windows platform, and is supported on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. For Windows 95/98 and Windows ME it is recommended that the system have at least 16 MB of physical memory. For Windows NT 4.0, it is recommended that the system have at least 32 MB of physical memory, and have at least Service Pack 5 (SP5) installed. For Windows 2000, it is recommended that the system have at least 64 MB of physical memory.

Distribution

When you redistribute your application that uses the control, it is recommended that you install the control in the Windows system directory. The ActivePatch control does not have any dependencies on additional libraries except for standard system libraries which are included with the operating system.

ActiveX components must be registered during the installation process or by using a component registration utility. The registration process writes specific information into the system registry so that an application can load and use the control. If an application attempts to use an unregistered control, it will fail to execute and return an error.

Copyright

Copyright 2009 Catalyst Development Corporation. All rights reserved.