Inform 7 Portable

Hi everyone!

I am trying to build a portable application out of the Windows port of inform 7 as suggested on uservoice “Suggestions for Inform 7” (inform7.uservoice.com/forums/573 … ?ref=title).

First I want to share what I learned about Inform 7. I share it because I may not have come up with the best solution. I want to encourage others to work on a solution too.

Inform 7 has its own “Home Directory” which defaults to the user’s “My Documents” folder.

In this “Home Directory” Inform 7 creates its own directory named “Inform”. Here the program stores all related project files and directories.

Inform creates those files and directories only if it doesn’t find the registry entry “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\David Kinder\Inform\Window\Last Project”.

The registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\David Kinder\” and all subsequent entries will be created on the very first launch of Inform 7 on a computer.

The default location of the “Home Directory” can be changed using a “home.txt” file in the same directory as the “inform7.exe”. You will find a short description under “Help -> Windows Inform Notes”.

If the project is stored in a different location than the “Home Directory” only the project files will be stored. The following directories will be missing:

Inform

  • Documentation
  • Extensions
  • Projects
  • Templates

Tools:
I chose the tools on PortableApps.com (http://portableapps.com/) to help make this work. At the time of my decision I didn’t know how to work with their tools. They have a healthy community and they provide a lot of portable software for free. So why not try it out?

Any volunteers for testing the development version will be greatly appreciated. Please post your feedback.

Outdated!
You find my test version 2 at the following link:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/Inform7Portable_0.9_Test_2_English.paf.exe

Here you can get the md5-checksum:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/Inform7Portable_0.9_Test_2_English.paf.md5

Please download the latest revision down this thread.

Installation:

  1. Without PortableApps.com Platform
    After starting the Installation (Inform7Portable_0.9_Test_2_English.paf.exe) choose a directory where you want to store the files. Then start the Inform7Portable.exe inside the installation directory.

  2. With PortableApps.com Platform
    Insert the USB-stick on which you installed the PortableApps.com Platform. Just start the Installation and don’t change the default destination folder. Run “Inform7 6G60 Portable” from the menu.

The Program will create a new folder “Inform” in the root of the storage (eg. C:\Inform) where it creates the “Home Directory”.

Deleting:

  • Delete the installation folder.
  • Delete the Inform folder.
  • Delete the registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\David Kinder”

Please take care of your Inform projects. As with any test version, Inform 7 Portable should be treated with caution.

I thank Emily Short for reviewing and correcting my draft for this post.

I’m currently running I7 (6g60) under windows 7 home premium. I’d like to help with your testing, but am wondering: if I install your portable version of I7 onto a USB stick, would that affect or conflict with my current installation or projects? I realize you might not be able to answer with complete certainty since this is a test, but what precautions should I take?

The Testversion will build two folders on a drive.
The installation directory which you can choose on your own which holds the Inform 7 application and a “Inform” folder in the root of the drive where the portable app is installed which is the “Home Directory”. It doesn’t matter if the drive is a USB-stick or a harddrive. The behaviour is all the same.

Because of the new “Home Directory” and a different installation folder the portable inform 7 should not interfere with installed versions on the computer.

I tested this version on different computers, harddrives and USB-Sticks. I had never any worries with it.

But it is a testversion. I cannot guarantee that it always works as planned. Basicly I advise you to save your projects at a secure place where they cannot be overwritten by accident.

It has been some time since I postet here a portable inform 7 testversion.

Please post here all your feedback until sunday.
If there are no issues with this release I will finalize this version.

Thank you all for your support!

Hi everyone!

There were no further suggestions.

Outdated!
Therefore here is the version 1.0 which is basically the same as the testversion 2:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/Inform7Portable_1.0_English.paf.exe

Here you can get the md5-checksum:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/Inform7Portable_1.0_English.paf.md5

Please download the latest revision down this thread.

I realeased a new version of the Windows Inform 7 Portable Application.

Changes:

  • Used the right category for placing the link in the right place in the PortableApp menu.
  • Changed the name of the installerfile to avoid irritation.
  • Changed the installation directory mainly to make future updates convenient.
  • Used the new tools of PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/) to create it.

Download:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6G60_English.paf.exe

SHA-1 Checksum:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6G60_English.paf.sha1

Readme:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/InformPotable_6G60_Portable_Readme.txt

Any testers or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your support!

Hi@all,

I made a new version of the Windows Inform 7 Portable Application.

Changes:

  • I used the new tools from PortableApp.com (http://portableapps.com/) to create it.
  • I downloaded the new Inform 7 6G60 installation from the inform7.com website.
    (Because of the different filesize from the version I stored on my harddisk
    I reckon there were changes made in the new Inform 7 6G60 installation package.)

Download:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6G60_English.paf.exe

SHA-1 Checksum:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6G60_English.paf.sha1

Readme:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29620803/InformPotable_6G60_Portable_Readme.txt

As always any testers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your support!

I built a portable version of the new inform7 release 6L02.

Download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6L02_English.paf.exe

SHA-1 Checksum:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6L02_English.paf.sha1

Readme:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPotable_6L02_Portable_Readme.txt

As always any testers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I built a portable version of the new windows inform7 release 6L38.

Download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6L38_English.paf.exe

SHA-1 Checksum:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6L38_English.paf.sha1

Readme:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPotable_6L38_Portable_Readme.txt

As always any testers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Great! It works! Thank you!
Now I can bring my brand new Inform 7 6L32 for Windows everywhere on an USB pen!

The portable version of the new windows inform7 release 6M62.

Download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6M62_English.paf.exe

SHA-1 Checksum:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPortable_6M62_English.paf.sha1

Readme:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29620803/InformPotable_6M62_Portable_Readme.txt

Any testers or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I’m pretty dang sure you can install Inform 7 to a USB stick by itself. When I installed it to a specific directory (not in Program Files), the extra folder that Inform creates that contains mostly empty folders is put in next to the install directory. I’ll reply to this reply as soon as I can test that.

Hi Nyx, I saw that your project was turned down at PortableApps:

portableapps.com/node/27825

because: “Link removed, Inform 7 is not open source and may not be distributed without permission, and may not be distributed on SourceForge at all - mod Chris”

Why is that? the documentation clearly states the open source license of the software and its third party components.

You should complaint about what the moderator wrote, it conveys the idea that you have violated Inform’s license and that Inform is not an open source project.

Inform 7 is not an open-source project. The IDEs and interpreters are open source, but the compiler is not.

Re “can’t be distributed without permission”: the I7 license says: