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Maybe it's "portable" in the sense that it's just an executable to launch, with no installation needed? I don't think they claim it is multi-platform.

by ale42 11mo ago

6581 11mo ago
"* Also runs on Linux/Mac (including apple silicon) via Wine *"
- Krssst 11mo ago
  Their website makes their definition of portable very clear in "What makes a portable app special?". It's quite clear they mean more a (much) stricter variation of the "no installation" definition than the "easily buildable on other OS" definition. Though they do mention execution under translation environments as a requirement.
blaiz2025 11mo ago
Yeah, by portable I do mean just an EXE to run. That is, no install, won't mess with your operation system, or play with your registry settings etc, nor require any setup to get running. This also allows the app to run seamlessly on a USB pen stick/harddisk so you can use it on different computers without fuss or being tied down by an installation. The app stores all it's settings etc in a folder alongside the EXE itself, usually "(app name).exe_storage", and automatically manages any references to external filenames/folders on it's own disk drive, allowing it to operate on different computers that might assign its disk drive a random/different drive letter without interrupting access to any referenced filenames/folders. And no, it's not multi-platform/cross-platform. It's a Win32 (32 bit) binary/codebase. The occasional experiment I have done in the past into cross-platform coding has left me less than impressed. Unfortunately, I'm used to coding at the low-level/API level, and as soon as the programming language starts to abstract away the commands things tend to get dicy for me, and I inevitably find myself lugging around 20+ MB libraries of converted functions, and with no particular guarantee the final app with behave or look similar on different platforms. Though I do wish such a thing existed. Something like a universal translation layer for all variations of software apps that is hardware accelerated and uniform in execution down to the very last and simple command would be a dream come true. Can't see why in 2025 we are still expected to code and/or compile apps for different operating systems and hardware platforms.

Maybe it's "portable" in the sense that it's just an executable to launch, with no installation needed? I don't think they claim it is multi-platform.

by ale42 11mo ago

Maybe it's "portable" in the sense that it's just an executable to launch, with no installation needed? I don't think they claim it is multi-platform.

6581 11mo ago

"* Also runs on Linux/Mac (including apple silicon) via Wine *"

Krssst 11mo ago
Their website makes their definition of portable very clear in "What makes a portable app special?". It's quite clear they mean more a (much) stricter variation of the "no installation" definition than the "easily buildable on other OS" definition. Though they do mention execution under translation environments as a requirement.

blaiz2025 11mo ago

Yeah, by portable I do mean just an EXE to run. That is, no install, won't mess with your operation system, or play with your registry settings etc, nor require any setup to get running. This also allows the app to run seamlessly on a USB pen stick/harddisk so you can use it on different computers without fuss or being tied down by an installation. The app stores all it's settings etc in a folder alongside the EXE itself, usually "(app name).exe_storage", and automatically manages any references to external filenames/folders on it's own disk drive, allowing it to operate on different computers that might assign its disk drive a random/different drive letter without interrupting access to any referenced filenames/folders. And no, it's not multi-platform/cross-platform. It's a Win32 (32 bit) binary/codebase. The occasional experiment I have done in the past into cross-platform coding has left me less than impressed. Unfortunately, I'm used to coding at the low-level/API level, and as soon as the programming language starts to abstract away the commands things tend to get dicy for me, and I inevitably find myself lugging around 20+ MB libraries of converted functions, and with no particular guarantee the final app with behave or look similar on different platforms. Though I do wish such a thing existed. Something like a universal translation layer for all variations of software apps that is hardware accelerated and uniform in execution down to the very last and simple command would be a dream come true. Can't see why in 2025 we are still expected to code and/or compile apps for different operating systems and hardware platforms.