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A few good ideas....

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ChristopherWYoung
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A few good ideas....

I have not been into PortableApps.com for long, but I find it highly useful. But there are a few things that have been bothering me. These are not complaints mind you, they are just a few suggestions that came to me.

1. Dependencies:
I think dependencies could start to become a problem. I think, that, just as some help for a few users, we should keep a running list of all the dependencies that each program will need, and also provide a link to the most up-to-date version (or the latest working version for that application). I just think this would help with users who often switch between multiple computers (I think that's actually why you made the applications. xD , that run different OSes (Win9x, NT, etc.).

2. UPX:
I also believe it would help users (especially those with rather small drives) save some disk space by UPXing everything possible. All *.dll's and *.exe's are usually shrunken down to 30% their original size using UPX 2.91 (--best --lzma --force --brute --compress-icons=2). I was able to reduce GIMP from 23Mb, to 15Mb. That's 8 Mb (obviously) that we saved. ^_^

I am sure more will come to me, but I have a Psychology test to study for. >.

John T. Haller
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Dependencies and Compression

Nearly all required files are included within the portable apps packages distributed by PortableApps.com. The apps are tested within multiple OS versions (from 95 through Vista). The compatible OSes are listed on each apps main page. No additional files are required unless otherwise noted. (VLC, for instance, requires unicows.dll to work on Win 9x. But, this file cannot be included in the package as it is no open source).

All the apps here that can be are already compressed with UPX. (GIMP Portable is a bit larger than yours as it also includes GTK+ which is necessary) The Mozilla apps are not UPX compressed (nor can they be due to licensing restrictions).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

ChristopherWYoung
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Sorry.

I apologize. I did not realize that. Sad Perhaps I should take a better look at things before I mouth off? Blum

Anyway, I am not sure if you are using the latest (BETA) version of UPX (2.91). It has considerably better compression (due to LZMA) than 2.03. I did take notice that some of the files on my drive did come pre-compressed. However, I decompressed them, and used my compression settings and achieved better (sometimes much, some times slightly) compressions.

Just pointing this out. Also, I realize 2.91 is still "Unstable" but so far, it has caused 0 file curruption (NSIS Launchers excluded).

John T. Haller
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Stable vs Not

As the UPX developers themselves state: "use them for testing only, and never distribute a program that is packed with them!" I adhere to that as I wouldn't want to take a "stable" app like a release version of AbiWord or GIMP and possibly make it less stable by using an unstable release of UPX on it. It would provide a bad experience for the end user and it wouldn't be fair to the AbiWord or GIMP guys if that was a new user's first experience. I try to stick to that as, being that portable software is relatively new and lower-risk (compared to installations), this will be many people's first exposure to open source... so I'm all about putting our best foot forward.

Also, 2.92 was released two days ago if you'd like to use it for your personal copies.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

ChristopherWYoung
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I understand

Ah. I completely understand. Smile Would it then be OK for me to release some batch files (tailored specifically for each application) demonstrating to users exactly how they can apply the best compression for their applications? I could just create a topic and keep it up-to-date. That way "bleeding edge" users could have the smallest installations possible, and those who wished to stay with the default installations could.

I only ask because I don't want to go and start making a topic that would be as utterly useless and waste your servers hard drive space (much like this one apparently has).

Ryan McCue
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That would be fine

You can absolutely release some batch files, as long as it doesn't use PortableApps.com or the PortableApps.com logo.
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Ryan McCue
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