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Outdated!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:
-
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. -
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.