First let me briefly describe what executables are in general, before going on to tell you what IVM executables are. As you probably already know, a computer has no will of its own, and will not do anything unless it is told exactly what to do. A set of instructions telling a computer what to do is called a program, and these programs are usually stored in computer files. The computer is able to read the files, containing programs, and execute the instructions. The files containing instructions to be executed are sometimes called executable files or just executables for short.
IVM executables are files containing instructions for an imaginary computer called the Irie Virtual Machine (IVM). So you ask "what good is it to have files with instructions telling an imaginary computers what to do"? Well, it is possible for real computers to be programmed to execute instructions for other (real and imaginary) computers. Programs that tell one computer how to execute the instructions of other computers are called interpreters. In order to make use of an IVM executable, a real computer needs an interpreter for the IVM. An interpreter for the IVM is included with Irie Pascal and consists of two files:
By default Irie Pascal creates IVM executables so usually you don't have to do anything to make it create an IVM executable. However if you want to make certain that you create an IVM executable, then all you have to do is make sure that the name of the executable you generate ends with .ivm (actually it might be more accurate to say that all you have to do is make sure that the name of the executable does not end with .exe). See miscellaneous options for information on how to specify the name of the executable.