this is a follow up to https://portableapps.com/node/1494
I've just started playing with emacs 22.1 on my usb flash drive after stumbling on this in the README.W32 file:
To install Emacs, simply unpack all the files into a directory of your
choice, but note that you might encounter minor problems if there is a
space anywhere in the directory name. To complete the installation
process, you can optionally run the program addpm.exe in the bin
subdirectory. This will add some entries to the registry that tell
Emacs where to find its support files, and put an icon for Emacs in
the Start Menu under "Start -> Programs -> Gnu Emacs -> Emacs".
...
Note that running addpm is now an optional step; Emacs is able to
locate all of its files without needing the information to be set in
the environment or the registry, although such settings will still be
obeyed if present. This is convenient for running Emacs on a machine
which disallows registry changes, or on which software should not be
installed. For instance, you can now run Emacs directly from a CD
without copying or installing anything on the machine itself.
The directory structure isn't set up for dropping into the PortableApps dir, but maybe all it needs is an EmacsPortable.exe launcher in the top directory.
It doesn't look totally portable in the "leave no traces" sense, as it put an auto save list into my Application Data directory.
that's as far as I've gotten.
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why not just use Notepad++ Portable or SciTE Portable? I love Notepad++! if there's something that emacs does that the others don't and anyone else wants it, then let me know and i may make a portable version of it.
I was reading the book (hardcopy!) of "Practical Common LISP"
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
and downloaded the copy of Lisp-in-a-box (emacs with clisp)...
http://common-lisp.net/pcl/windows/lispbox-0.7-clisp-2.37.zip
... and unzipped it to my "Portable Applications" folder. I had the same "leave no traces" problem and found an answer at...
http://pigpog.com/node/2875
I adapted the instructions there by adding the lines....
(defvar usb-drive-letter (substring data-directory 0 3))
(defvar usb-home-dir (concat usb-drive-letter "home/"))
(setenv "HOME" usb-drive-letter)
....to the top of the file "lispbox.el" just below the line....
(require 'cl)
When the program is run it puts the "HOME", ".slime", and ".emacs.d" folders at the root of the flashdrive instead of the c:. I suppose I could get it to put them elsewhere with some more editing, but I haven't really felt the need.
I added the "lispbox.bat" file to me "pstart" menu and it works quite well.
Someone asked why would anyone want to use emacs in a portable apps environment. Well it has a comprehensive scripting language (elisp) and a huge library of applications that can be incorporated into it, for example GNUs for reading Usenet news, doctor for conductin the Turing test, syntax directed editing for C/C++/HTML/XML/SGML/clu/Pascal/NSIS/etc/etc.
For me, portableapps let's me use the same software on my home machines (Mac OS X and Linux) and on my employer's machines (all Windows XP). The emacs editor is an essential part of the suite of preferred programs.
I have enabled emacs in the PAM Mod R31menu by simply creating a menu entry pointing to the executable in the 'bin' subdirectory. Other launchers and other PAM variants have the same or similar capability. Another way to do this has been discussed here by creating a BAT file (similar to the unix/linux script) that executes the appropriate executable. If you go this route, you can also either point a menu entry to the BAT file or use a BAT_TO_EXE compiler (use search, references can be found here to both free and commercial versions) to convert the BAT file to an executable. If you have figured out emacs, either of these paths will be fairly easy (and a one-time requirement.)
As far as the autosave registry entry, sorry, I can't help you there. Good luck!
2009-05-29 SST - emacs-22.3 "Portable" this is my 1st manual attempt to make emacs appear in the PortableApps launcher menu. I have followed https://portableapps.com/development/portableapps.com_format to: * manually set up some directories [01] * manually create the appinfo.ini file [02] * manually copied the original emacs directory tree [03] * manually copy the appropriate icon file to appicon.ico [04] I HAVE NOT: * NOT recompiled emacs from source, I've taken the readymade original zip archive [03] * NOT arranged for a proper PortableApps.com installer (and installer.ini) as per portableapps.com_format#installer * NOT cared, reviewed or adapted the original GNU emacs source for complying to "PortableApps" rules with regard to files and/or registry entries written, modified or left on the computer. This file is at: emacsPortable/README.txt [01] the directory tree I manually created below PortableApps: emacsPortable +---App | +---AppInfo \---Data [02] the manually created ini-file "emacsPortable/App/AppInfo/appinfo.ini" (b40b4ce0b133cca243e81c1039327a9e *appinfo.ini) """ [Format] Type=PortableApps.comFormat Version=0.9.8 [Details] Name=emacs-22.3 Portable Publisher=SST Homepage=gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ Category=Development Description=GNU Emacs, the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor. Language=Multilingual Trademarks= InstallType= [License] Shareable=true OpenSource=true Freeware=true CommercialUse=true [Version] PackageVersion=0.0.0.1 DisplayVersion=22.3 manual pakg.attempt 1 [Control] Icons=1 Start=App\emacs-22.3\bin\runemacs.exe """ [03] I downloaded http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/emacs-22.3-bin-i386.zip (e58ddeed8c9f589543fc977be0d45b5f *emacs-22.3-bin-i386.zip) and unpacked it (using cygwin tools) according to http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/Installing-Emacs.html to an arbitrary directory on one of my harddisks. Then I moved the directory emacs-22.3 to: emacsPortable +---App +---emacs-22.3 [04] I copied the icon file emacsPortable/App/emacs-22.3/etc/icons/emacs.ico to emacsPortable/App/AppInfo/appicon.ico EOTEXT--
portable on what: PPC? ARM? SPPARC? MIPS? m68k? AXP? VAX?