Talk:Portable application

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[edit] how to program portable apps?

Does anybody have information about how to program portable apps? What are the guidelines, what programming environments on different platforms are suitable, etc.? 60.248.21.146 03:08, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

There are no guidelines - just get free or open-source software (e.g., you can edit). Make it store its settings and stuff in its own directory, not in the registry or Application Data (Windows) or /home directory (Linux).

Preferably, you can make a launcher (like in NSIS as with FirefoxPortable and the other portableapps.com apps) to wrap everything, than you don't have to edit the program itself at all. 24.88.40.149 20:50, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] size

Hey guys, do you think putting the applications size by the name in the list would be a good idea? after all, this is supposed to be portable apps for a USB key. It would make it more relevent to users with a 128mb USB key.

I'm always in favor of size info. 69.87.193.141 22:40, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] XP files not backwards compatible to 98

FAT is commonly used to transport portable files. But VFAT LFN support in Windows NT and later versions has a new "feature" that breaks backwards compatibility with all previous OS, such as 98. Sometimes there is a long filename and a 8.3 shortname. Sometimes there is just an ordinary shortname. But sometimes there is a modified shortname, with two hidden bits that encode whether the filename is lowercase. The older versions of Windows do not understand these hidden bits. They treat the filename as all uppercase, so some filenames may change when reading the files on Windows 98. Often this filename change, from "example" to "EXAMPLE", does not matter, because Windows is mostly case-insensitive. But sometimes it causes software to malfunction, in strange ways. This happens with Portable ClamWin and Portable Nvu. The only ways around the problem are to transfer the files in an archive, to move them over a network, or to use Linux to read and re-write the files with the shortname mount option turned off. 69.87.193.141 22:40, 23 January 2007 (UTC)