How to build software that doesn't require a framework on the user's machine?

Question

I am an ASP.NET developer, but now I want to build a software that can be installed on my PC. Software built in .NET platform only works when the .NET Framework is installed, and software written in Java only works if the JDK is installed. When I install programs like Firefox, uTorrent, etc., I don't need to have any frameworks (.NET, JDK, etc.) installed. How do I write software that doesn't depend on a framework?

Answer 1

You will have to use a language that isn't dependent on a framework or otherwise only target clients that are already have your framework installed.

If you chose C or C++ for example, you would distribute binaries to your client that contained machine code. This code would not be dependent on a runtime environment (like C# or Java) or an interpreter (like Python or Ruby). This is the way that applications like Firefox and uTorrent are written.

Answer 2

"When I install programs like Firefox, uTorrent, etc., I don't need to have any frameworks."

Actually, you do. They just tend to use the C++ frameworks, such as MFC, some of which are already installed. Even then, there are installers for these frameworks that are included with other application installers (usually called Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package or something like that. See Also: Visual C++ Deployment).

Now, having said that, they don't require a virtual machine (like a JVM for Java or a CLR for .NET), because C++ compiles down to x86 / x86-64 machine language to be executed directly by the operating system.