I'm pretty sure I read this somewhere in the forums a year or two ago. But, thought maybe it was time to ask again. What complications are involved in compressing a .paf format application into a single run file. I would have to believe that it would be much more convenient if apps were written this way if possible. If anyone has any ideas or comments, please post them. Let's really give ThinApp and Xenocode something to talk about!
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It would have to "extract" the files somewhere locally when it is run and delete them when it closes which would take far longer. It would be exceedingly long in the case of an app like OpenOffice.org or GIMP or GnuCash. And all the data files would, of course, have to reside outside of the EXE on the portable device, so you wouldn't end up with "one file" anyway.
In short, there's no real advantage other than some install size savings and that's negated by the far longer startup times, possibility of running out of space on the host PC, inability of users to install plugins and other things contained within the App, inability to remove pieces like languages, etc.
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I've done a lot of testing with portable applications in the past few years. PAF, Thinstall, ThinApp, Xenocode, PAC, PACM, Portable Builder, ect... And with all the knowledge I've gained, other than start-up times I wasn't really sure what the complications were. I appreciate the quick reply. Maybe someday we can Open Source virtualization. But, all in all, one file or one folder. Sounds the same to me. Thanks again.
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It's also worth noting that apps that have any code licensed under the GPL or similar licenses packaged in a commercial virtualizer into a single EXE can not legally be redistributed.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!