I do most of my work on macOS… but sometimes I compile for Windows, and have a friend do the testing for me…
When I do the compile it creates
with the last two being rather large folders of DLL etc.
The question is, for testing purpose, Do I have to ship my testers the WHOLE thing each time? or just everything once, and then an updated EXE as required?
As with many things in coding, the answer is 'it depends".
Some things are more obvious, such as adding or changing graphics files in Resources. Or you may be explicitly using another third-party plugin not used in the previous build, and it requires some supporting files. Other things are less obvious, because various Xojo language features will trigger needing a DLL that was not necessary in the previous build.
I just also include everything. But at a minimum, I’d compare the file counts in the various subfolders. If they are the same, then chances are high shipping just the EXE would suffice. However, if the point is testing, wouldn’t it make sense to test what is known to be the same configuration a user would get?
I think the only case where I’d consider just the EXE is if the test/debug cycle was because of fixing a minor change such as the wrong operator or condition in an IF statement, or wrong variable or property reference, etc.
Just my .02