cool idea, would this be possible?

[kryton9]

I just read a post on coding monkeys and the discussion mentioned development environments on usb memory sticks, I thought wow a great idea.
Can we setup thinBasic on a memory stick and use on any windowsxp machine with a usb port then?

[Michael Clease]

Its never been a good idea to install programs to removable media but I dont see why it wouldnt work, I dont think it the installer puts anything apart from the installation directory.

Try it, just modify the drive settings in the thinair.ini file to the data pen directory one problem is if you have more than one external media the drive letter could change.

[ErosOlmi]

The biggest problem is linking thinBasic extensions (.tBasic, .tBasicc, .tBasicx, .tBasiccx) to the relevant executable in order to let Windows Explorer where to find the executable. There is not an easy solution for that.

I can think about an utility program that makes the relevant changes when needed: link extensions, change thinAir ini file.

[kryton9]

Eros, the auto linking isn't important for me... could I for example install thinBasic on a usb drive.
Put all my thinBasic files on it, and then do all updates to that usb drive. Then to run a thinBasic script, I would just load it on my own using file open from thinAir, can this be done?

[ErosOlmi]

Yes should work as long as you setup correct thinBasic path into thinAir INI file (via manual change or thinAir config dialog).
thinBasic setup installation process does not setup any "strange" config apart extension linking.

Let us know ;)
Ciao
Eros

[matthew]

Take a look at MojoPac (http://www.mojopac.com/portal/content/hellomojo.jsp) it allows you to install applications on a USB drive in the same way you'd install them on a computer.

[kryton9]

Thanks Matthew I watched the demo videos for mojopac and it sure looked interesting.

[Michael Hartlef]

Recently I started to use thinBASIC at my job. I just copied the folder from my harddrive onto a memory stick and use it at work just like a regular installation. The only thing I had to do was to tell the system via Explorer, that I want to open the script files with thinAIR. That was all. Yeah and run a script from within thinAIR for once. Then you can double click on them too.

[RobertoBianchi]

Yes I confirm you can use ThinBasic and ThinAir from a USB flash drivers, time ago, we added the choice of where to store ThinAir setting (register of .ini file and the ThinBASIC root folder path in the TA options) for fully support U3 Smart Technology (http://www.u3.com/) but then we stopped to make ThinBasic a U3 smart application because it seems that the use U3 is not grown as promised!

Anyhow I can in ThinAir an utility for shell extensions registration, what do you think?

Thank you very much and best regards,
Roberto

[matthew]

I think it would be a good decision to make a version of thinBasic that didn't need to be installed.

Sites such as PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/) and no-install (http://www.no-install.com/) are visited by thousands of people every day.

Maybe more people will start to use thinBasic. :)

[ErosOlmi]

OK but any idea on how to solve the fact that thinBasic script files will not have a linked application?

This means scripts will have a generic icon and double click on them will have the effect that the OS will ask for an application to be used to open them. And even if thinBasic the first time it executes a script, automatically links the extensione to thinBasic executable, the next time the USB dongle is inserted, it can have a new drive letter assigned. So previous registration path to thinBasic executable will change.

Of course, if we can accept thinBasic scripts are executed only from thinAir, we can determine the relative thinBasic.exe path. But one of the biggest advantages is to have scripts be used by a double click in Windows shell or even specified directly in command line.

I can see the advanteges of being able to be 100% independent from the OS registration but I cannot hide the problems. So we are open to any suggestion on this argument but please condier the problems and possible solutions. If we will find a shared possible way to solve those little but important problems, we will be really happy about that.

Do you know how other applications solved the problem of extension link?
Applications like editors, browsers, maybe do not suffer this because most of the time you open the application and than open the file. But here is the script extension that drive the game.

We will listen your opinion on that.
Ciao
Eros

[ErosOlmi]

To give you another details ...

every time thinBasic.exe or thinBasicc.exe are executed, they check in the Windows Registry if the relevant thinBasic extensions (.tBasic for GUI version and .tBasicc for console version) are linked to the current thinBasic executable. If no registration is found, thinBasic will register extension.

[RobertoBianchi]

In fact ThinBASIc it's already a portable application.

Roberto

[ErosOlmi]

More or less, yes: it is already portable.
We just need to tune up a bit the extension linking.

I'm looking at details about automatic linking because we also have to consider obfuscated scripts.
Actually, obfuscated script extensions (.tBasicx and .tBasiccX) are linked only by the setup process.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

I have installed thinBASIC on flash card too.

I always ran the scripts for thinAir - there was just tiny problem with some absolute path in thinAir INI files ( install path ? ) I had to edit. Problem was when USB was not mounted as drive letter I expected, then I had to edit INI again.

But then all ran fine and smooth :)


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

We are reconsidering some options on this side that maybe can make it working.

I've already modified thinBasic.exe and thinBasicC.exe in order to change path at every thinBasic execution.
The last thinBasic execution will set the registry path to the one just used.
It will also set thinAir path connected to the "Edit" command shell (when you right click on a script and choose "Edit"). Also this will be changed at every execution and be relative to thinBasic path.
Those changes will be present in next release.

Regarding thinAir and where it gets thinBasic path when you execute scripts, I have to discuss with Roberto.
We already did some work in the past on that. Maybe we missed something.

Ciao
Eros

[kryton9]

This is very exciting to hear that Mike has it working already in a more than acceptable manner.
The problems you point out Eros are very professional of you and wonderful that you are so professional in wanting to address them!

I currently have sd memory cards, but will start looking for bargains on usb sticks as it sure sounds like the way I would like to go.
Thanks for the input and info guys!

[bigh008]

Obviously great minds think similarly!! In fact, I'm also undertaking just that project!!

One thought, write a (gasp!) BATCH file, executes automagically when plugging in the gizmo, swaps in a second version of the INI file...

Take it easy and good luck!!

howard

[ErosOlmi]

Ciao Howard and welcome here!
:)