CommandPromptPortable 1.0.1beta (maybe)

(as you would have seen if you had tried it ) and besides, it is offered to him in case he wants to use it.

Maybe we should think about a standard compiler switch that creates unofficial or beta versions with different visual identity and trademarked phrases; that way we could create testing or mod versions for John's consideration that are obviously not "official", but wouldn't require a whole lot of testing to put into "official" format.

Or does something like that exist already and I've just missed it?

On my Windows XP machine, the help message for cmd.exe says "File and Directory name completion is NOT enabled by default." Maybe it is lying?

It also says that the default when you just turn it on with /f:on is ctrl-F and ctrl-D. My fingers prefer Tab, because that's what bash is set for. The only way to set that is in the registry, according to the Help message. (TweakUI can do it, but I don't really want to go there...)

I was tempted while messing with the registry to keep the setting for Quick Edit too, but that can be set in the properties dialog.

So you see, I thought I was adding something that was not possible any other way -- having a preference for completion character. Setting the character to something other than space also turns it on, so that is a side benefit...

As far as support is concerned, we're talking about a Command prompt here. If they can use the command prompt, they shouldn't need much support...

There are two settings in an ini file. There are examples of the most common variations for people to copy.

The initial setup is such that it copies whatever is on the first machine, theoretically the home machine. If the person has figured out how to set up that preference (TweakUI or a registry setting), it will be copied for her.

So: support can consist of "unplug your USB drive; set up the completion characters the way you like them and test; insert the USB drive; delete the commandprompt.ini file in the .\data directory; run CommandPromptPortable to copy your preferences." If they don't have a preference set up on their home machine, then they shouldn't be worrying about taking it with them on the road.

I've done some snooping around, and it appears that the CompletionChar is set to tab on XP and later machines, with PathCompletionChar not set. My changes didn't anticipate that PathCompletionChar would not be set, so I'll need to fix it so it puts things back the way it found them.

I guess the question would be, does John H. want me to work on it more, or should I just take it down and go on to another project?

It currently is good enough for me, but before it gets released it needs a bit more work.

No hard feelings if John doesn't want it changed. I've got what I need, and learned a lot about NSIS in the process.

Funny, I was thinking I might look at one of the sh programs (native win32, not cygwin) to see what they might be like as an alternative. I think I recall that some depend on CMD.EXE somehow, but maybe others don't.

I think I recall hearing of some geeks using Perl as their shell. Or maybe it was emacs. Have you thought of trying that?

If the computer is locked down to the extent of prohibiting CMD.EXE, you should probably not challenge them with alternatives. We wouldn't want you or PortableApps to get a bad name.

On the other hand, that locked-down machine should be a good one for testing, to see what those restrictions do to the PA platform, with a view toward eliminating proscribed behaviors where possible.