PortableApps.com Extras

Hello,
My mistake as I understand it may have been sketchy not to reply in a timely fashion. My name is Sam Gleske. I'm 20 yrs old and am a student at Drexel University. I have a website if you wish to visit it, http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~sag47/. I have programming experience ranging from beginner to expert in the following languages:

AutoCAD
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
C#
C++
DHTML
HTML
Java
JavaScript
LabView VI (Virtual Instruments)
Linux Shell
Maple
Neuron C
NSIS
PHP
UPMACS
OpenCyc
Windows Batch
XHTML

I am a certified IT and Network professional as well as network Admin. Some of my certifications include CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA A+. I am capable of getting web developer certifications such as the w3schools web developer cert, the MSCE, and a host of other certifications. I just haven't had the time or money to take them. I have a good understanding of the Windows registry.

I also was one of the original developers of Pioneer Linux (http://tapioneer.org/) by simply doing freelance work, working off of handouts here and there. I was never actually employed by them. If you wish to see other works by me then simply search my name on google. I am a serious promoter of open source software and recommend it where I can. I've been using linux for about 5 years now.

Now about those Apps. You may notice that they don't vary much from their original counter parts. Well thats because they don't. I did not alter the source code of the applications in any way. I do not have enough C++ experience to do something like that so I didn't want to risk harming anyones computer. In fact the only difference you may find is that the way those programs are launched. I'll give you a quick overview now of information about the programs and what I modified. I will be putting it in layman's terms so if your an advanced computer guy then please don't get frustrated (I just want everyone who reads this to understand).

Battle for Wesnoth Portable Ed v1.2.7 Portable (fixed)
This is a nice turn based strategy game, one of my personal favorites. The homepage for it is http://www.wesnoth.org/. I only programmed a simple NSIS launcher with a splash screen as well as wesnoth.bat located in WesnothPortable\App\wesnoth. The batch file was necessary in order for it to run properly on a flash drive where paths coninually changed.

Eclipse PHP IDE Portable (PDT 1.0 Release is part of this category)
Eclipse is a platform for programming Integrated Development Environments (IDE). This particular variant is for programing in the web languages PHP, HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other forms of DHTML. This features autocompletetion (Ctrl+Spacebar does the trick if it doesn't show up automaticaly). Autoclosing of HTML tags so all you have to type is </ and it will finish the rest automatically. And many other features that I have not yet figured out how to do :). PDT 1.0 Release is just the specific release and version of Eclipse (which is for PHP). I programmed a simple NSIS launcher for it. Homepage is http://www.eclipse.org/php/. So this isn't a PHP exclusive IDE but more of a web developer IDE to compete with Dream Weaver. Be aware that the drive letter does not change when you launch eclipse. So if you opened it an your flash drive was D: on one computer and F: on another. It will still show up as D: and throw an error PATH NOT FOUND or something like that. I still need to reprogram the launcher to write to the config file the drive so this is not a recurring problem.

geek.menu Themes
Contains themes such as visual colors and icons that were specifically designed for geek.menu (Project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/geek-menu/). I use geek.menu because it has more customizable features than the PortableApps.com version however they are both great pieces of software.

Vista Aero Icon Theme
This is part of the geek.menu Themes section. I pulled these out of Windows Vista, modified them, and then named them in the format for geek.menu. In my opinion these have more luster than the default icons for geek.menu or PortableApps.com.

JkDefrag v3.29 Portable
I stumbled upon JkDefrag (Homepage: http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/). It is based off of the Windows defragger and in my professional opinion safe. I've tested it on Windows 2000/XP/Vista for the past 6 months and all works fine. What it does is defrag your files (like the Windows defragger but faster). Additionally, it moves all the data to the center of your hard disk for faster access. Think of the data as a pair of bicyclists going in a circle. Both of them are travelling at 5 mph. Which will go around the circle faster, the inside cyclist or the outside? Hopefully you said inside. Well data on a hard drive works the same way. It can be accessed faster on the inner cylinders. It also optimizes the hard disk, although I don't know how it does it (technically speaking). I ran this on computers that were so slow that the context menu (right click menu) on the desktop was delayed but after running this it was instant. So theres no doubt in my mind it works. As you can see I have nothing but good things to say about this software.

VirtuaWin v3.2 Portable
VirtuaWin (Project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtuawin/) is for multiple virtual desktops. I run it on Vista Business and enjoy it. When I ran the setup I simply chose to have the configurations stored in a file (not registry). I also programmed the NSIS launcher for it.

ZSNES v1.51 Portable
ZSNES (Project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zsnes/) is a Super Nintendo Emulator. It can play emulated games that were originally for the Super Nintendo (these are called ROMs)! I love it so I figured I'd share how I customized it. I made zsnesw.cfg (location: ZSNESPortable\App\zsnes) readonly so it could not save the last run path which was necessary if I wanted to load my ROMS without having to search for them by using the batch file I created called zsnesw.bat. Unfortunatly this primitive method does not allow you to save/load the state of your game (this is in the GAME menu of ZSNES).
WARNING: I only recommend this software for intermediate-expert computer users. Although ZSNES is safe, the games you might be downloading are not as well as the websites you may get them from. They have a higher risk of containing viruses than most files so WATCH OUT (or switch to linux maybe?)! Please be wary when trying to obtain ROMs.

Wrapping up:
Sorry this was so long but I felt your post needed a reply like this. Basically I search sourceforge and the internet everyday for free programs I can put to good use. It just so happens that some of these programs run well on a flash drive so I am going to reconfigure them to run with PortableApps.com. Have no fear, there are no misdeeds here. Only the friendly promotion of this nice software I stumbled upon accidently one day.

SAM

I'm still not sure what you mean by a reference at portableapps.com to vouch for me. Since I am new here I know no one. So I guess you can be my first. You can get a feel for what kinda guy I'm like over time. As for an instant assurance for you, I have none.

Couple questions for you. I see you've been here a while, are you an admin? Are you an original developer of PortableApps.com suite?

SAM

I know the file/folder structures need work. They were just a makeshift job. Do you have a reference as to what standard structure they are using. I didn't find a good document listing it.

I think many of these programs I'm using are too large for attachment in a post and I don't have an FTP with enough space to support them. Maybe I can try to set something up with XAMPP on my local.

I assume you mean a beta forum on PortableApps.com (or do you mean on sf.net?)

SAM

Yes. Sorry but I haven't had time to make an an installer for the Apps yet. I was looking at the contribution page for this website and it suggested creating a sf.net project so thats what I did. I'm going to release installers for all the programs but I have not had much time on my hands. There are instructions on installing located in the root of every zip file called Instructions.txt. PortableApps.com Extras was all I could think of for the name because I have Apps and Extras.

I know its a whack job at the moment but it's a work in progress. I just wanted to share the programs I have with everyone now and come out with installers later. I'll make them within the next few weeks. I know the other apps come with installer source but I just am a busy bee and have not made it yet. Though I thought it was clever how they add the files to the installer with wild cards.

SAM