>>>Is there a binary compiled for Windows which allows me to run Vim >>>without any of the runtime files? Long story short, I want something >>>I can keep online or on a USB key and just copy to the desktop of any >>>computer I sit at.
>>I saw the entire thread so far, and while there are lots of possible >>solutions, wouldn't it just be easier to get a U3 flash-thingy, that's >>supposed to do exactly this? >>http://www.u3.com/ >>I don't have a U3 flash-thingy nor have I ever used one (no need as >>yet), but this is supposed to be what U3 is all about, ie, to let you >>install whole apps on a flash-thingy and transport them all from machine >>to machine wherever you go. >never had one in my pocket. But what I heard is bad: it leaves plenty of >stuff in the registry and you need house cleaning when removing u3. Aha, okay. Lis, never used one, don't know the details, but threw it out as a suggestion. Doesn't sound too "clean" a solution, then. >On top of this, it's proprietary and not opensource. At least, with 7-zip >sfx, it's clean by construction: when you close gvim, unless the process >was killed uncleanly, the temporary extracted version will clean itself and >disappear. Yeh, I love using .zip files for everything, too, right from the first days of 'pkzip'. Hell, got my first start in 'vi' on peecees with PC/VI, an actual port of AT&T 'vi' to DOS. DOS would even grex about a bogus '-i' option when shelling out, because it'd try to shell out with 'sh -i' (interactive). Even used *real* termcaps/terminfo entries, because I was running (from a DOS box!!) real honest-to-B'harni 'vi' on a (Televideo) TV910 and TV910+ through the serial port. Sweeeet. Aaaah, the good ol' days... Anyhoo, yeah, I'd box up all my trusty'n'crusty utils within one or more .zip files with whole directory trees. Bring it to a new machine, unzip to disk or even a RAMdrive, run a batch file to set up the environment variables, and I'm ready to go. >I actually built many sfx this way when I looked into u3 Never looked at U3 in any detail, just heard in passing what it's about. Sounds really nice in theory, which is why I suggested it as an option. Hope you don't mind if I pass along your critique above (name/email redacted, natch; I try to respect other peoples' privacy) to another private list, as U3 was a topic about a month or so ago. Someone liked the idea of being able to put Firefox and other stuff on a flash-thingy and be able to have all his settings, bookmarks, etc., all able to be dragged from machine to machine. Don't know if he went and got a U3 thingy yet, but if this is an issue, he and others should know.
