John's Computer Journal

Ctrl - Alt - H to Show and Hide Hidden Files

2008-05-28T21:47:00.006-06:00

Hidden files can quickly be shown and hidden again using the the following VBScript. The script has only been tested in Windows Vista, but should work in other versions of Windows.

'showHiddenFiles.vbs
'http://johnscomputerjournal.blogspot.com

Dim WSHShell, n, p, itemtype, MyBox
Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

p = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Hidden"

itemtype = "REG_DWORD"

n = WSHShell.RegRead (p)
errnum = Err.Number

if errnum <> 1 then

WSHShell.RegWrite p, 2, itemtype
End If

If n = 2 Then ' currently hidden

down = 9

'   WshShell.RegWrite p, 1, itemtype

End If

If n = 1 Then ' currently shown

down = 8

'   WshShell.Regwrite p, 2, itemtype

End If

WshShell.Run "RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 7"
WScript.Sleep 500

WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"

'8 to hide
'9 to show
For i=1 to down

WshShell.SendKeys "{DOWN}"

Next

WshShell.SendKeys " {TAB}{TAB}{ENTER}"

Set WshShell = Nothing

After saving the VBScript, create a shortcut to the script someplace in your start menu. Right click the shortcut and assign the shortcut keys Ctrl - Alt - H.

Open up a folder and press Ctrl - Alt - H to show hidden files. Press Ctrl - Alt - H again to hide the files.

Simple Tomboy like Notes in Windows

2008-05-28T21:26:00.003-06:00

Until Tomboy is properly ported to Windows, similar functionality can be achieved with tools already provided by windows.

Open up your Documents folder and create a folder called Quick Notes.
Create a shortcut to Notepad (or similar text editor application) in the Quick Notes folder.
Right click the shortcut to Notepad and select Properties. Put the full path to the Quick Notes folder in the Start in: field.
Right click on your task bar and go to Toolbars > New Toolbar ... and select the Quick Notes folder.

Voila! Quick and easy access to your notes.

RIFE framework analysis

2008-03-27T17:30:00.004-06:00

The RIFE framework is a fully featured web application framework.

Key Components: RIFE handles content management, database, meta data, templating, web, life-cycle management, external interfaces (like web services), and common services.
Request Routing: Requests are routed through RIFE's web engine. The web engine handles data and logic flow and ties together the components. The web engine is also features what it calls 'continuations' which are capable of ensuring idempotent and navagatable form submissions.
View Handling: RIFE has a template component that handles displaying dynamic web content. RIFE's template code does not include commands for anything more than presentation.
Model Handling: RIFE has support for several databases through JDBC and a content management system for handling binary files, e.g, images. RIFE can automatically initiate a database structure based plain old java objects, i.e, pojos and ensure they are used correctly via constraint meta data.

Stability

Robustness: The framework forces developers to develop a well structured application that is maintainable and easy to understand.
Scalability: RIFE should easily scale for high-volume data and traffic. The developers of RIFE have used it to build an IRC bot capable of tracking, recording, and displaying IRC channel conversations from multiple channels.

Framework Type

The RIFE application framework uses elements of both request-based and component-based models. The RIFE framework may be the current top hybrid framework that provides request-based control. A quick search on google for 'request based framework' returns RIFE as the first result.

Request-based usage: RIFE uses a request-based model to handle the entire data and logic flow. By handling the data and logic flow in a request-based method developers are able to have full control over URLs, forms, parameters, cookies and pathinfos. The request-based model is very close to the original CGI specification.
Component-based usage: RIFE uses a component-based approach to map actions and controllers to requests. The abstract, higher level approach provided by the component model allows consistent behavior among individual pages, forwarded pages, and integrable content, e.g., widgets and page fragments. Components can be easily distributed and re-used and embeded in other RIFE applications.

Ease of Use

Getting started: RIFE/Jumpstart contains source code for developers to quickly get started using RIFE. RIFE/Jumpstart supports many common development environments including Eclipse and NewBeans and comes with a Jetty servlet container and other components.
Learning Curve: RIFE requires certain declarations to be implemented in a handful of configuration files before an application can function correctly. RIFE's developers claim that the declarations increase productivity and reduce maintenance issues. Overall the learning curve isn't too difficult, but still uses slightly different terminology than other frameworks any may be difficult to quickly pick up and understand. Documentation, examples, and a user guide can all be found on RIFE's official website.
Support: RIFE's official website and wiki site provides a few good examples and tutorials of how to use RIFE. The examples and tutorials don't seem to be updated too frequently. Sources of public support outside of RIFE's official and affiliated sites are difficult to locate if they exist at all.

Sites

RIFE's official site http://rifers.org/rifespotting lists a few high-traffic sites. However, none of the sites listed were familiar to me. A few blogs mention developers that have chosen to develop using the RIFE framework, but I couldn't find many in the 'wild' that use the framework.

http://www.blablalist.com/ - Sharable to-do list
http://moochspot.com/ - Track shared expenses, built by Facebook to demonstrate the use of Facebook API
http://drone.codehaus.org/ - IRC bot

Thoughts

RIFE provides all the tools needed to quickly develop and maintain a Java web application. The feature set is impressive and the ability to integrate with other frameworks, libraries, tools, and APIs allow RIFE to be a great base for application development.

The difficulty in finding websites that use RIFE and the few blog posts discussing RIFE lead me to believe RIFE is being overlooked by many web developers in favor of other frameworks. I was not able to indicate any particular drawback of using RIFE over another framework.

The last update to RIFE code was sometime last summer. It may be possible that the infrequent updates to supporting documentation and core RIFE code development are causing some developers to shy away from using the framework.

Dynamic Image Sizing (Zoom) for Firefox

2007-06-04T06:29:00.000-06:00

The following javascript code will setup a HTML document so that in Firefox when the fontsize is increased or decreased, the images will increase or decrease in size as well. The code can be appended to the end of any HTML document you wish or possibly made into a Firefox extension.

Usage

After appending the following code to any HTML document use the Ctrl+Mouse Wheel, the View -> Text Size, Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, or Ctrl+0 menus and or accelerators in Firefox to zoom the page in or out. Internet Explorer and Opera already have the ability to zoom text and images and as far as I know are unaffected by the code.

Limitations

The code does not resize images that are displayed as part of the CSS style.

Javascript Code

<!-- dynamic image sizing - set image size according to font size {{{
     Copyright (C) 2007 John Elkins

     LISCENSE

     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
     under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
     Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
     option) any later version.

     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
     WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General
     Public License for more details.

     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
     with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
     51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA. 

     REQUIREMENTS
            
            Firefox web browser.  IE and Opera already have an image zoom
            functionality.

     USAGE

            Place the following code at the END of the document.  After all
            images have finished loading.

     LIMITATIONS
            
            Images defined by CSS styles are not resized

     Version 1
        
     4 June 2007
-->
<style type="text/css">
<!--
    .em_test_hidden {
        position:absolute;
        left:0px;
        top:-500px;
        width:1px;
        overflow:hidden;
    }
-->
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--



// Create the test image
var element = document.createElement('img');
element.setAttribute("src", "");
element.setAttribute("style","height:1em;");
element.setAttribute("class","em_test_hidden");
element.setAttribute("id","em_test_element");

document.body.appendChild(element);

element.class="em_test_hidden";

// Use the test image to determine the pixels per em
var px_per_em = document.getElementById("em_test_element").height;

// Set all image heights to change relative to the em
var image = document.getElementsByTagName("img");
for (var i=0; i<image.length; i++) {

    var dynamic_em_height=image[i].height/px_per_em;
    var dynamic_em_width=image[i].width/px_per_em;

    image[i].style.height = dynamic_em_height+"em";
    image[i].style.width  = dynamic_em_width+"em";

}

// change the document so it also resizes accordingly
document.body.style.width = document.width/px_per_em+"em";

-->
</script> <!--}}}-->

Summarize and TOC Blogger Widget

2007-05-28T19:22:00.000-06:00

The following widget uses javascript to automatically summarize an article and provide a table of contents when not summarized. During summarization the widget will remove all HTML tags and display by default up to 255 characters or a new line (whichever comes first). When creating a table of contents the widget will search for header tags, add the appropriate anchors, and generate a table of contents with links to the headers in the article.

Requirements

Blogger (Beta) Blog
Using the layouts templates
Javascript
Use H1 - H6 to denote section headings

Usage

Summarize

By default the summarize widget will display up to 255 characters or a new line (whichever comes first). To adjust the amount of characters shown in the summary, change the summarize_length variable to the desired length. The summarize_length variable can be accessed through the widget settings screen.

Table of Contents (TOC)

The table of contents is displayed only if there are heading tags within the article. By default headings H1 - H3 are used by blogger to display the article title, date, and comments headings. So, I use H4 - H6 in articles to make things a little easier to read; however H1 - H3 could be use too depending on the style you want.

To change the way the table of contents is displayed edit the .tocH* CSS classes found within the widget settings.

Examples

The summarize and table of contents widget was built for use on John's Computer Journal. You can take a look around and see the widget doing its thing.

Summarize

Check out a non-article page for an example of summarize in action. The index (main) and search pages will summarize all post content.

Check out the top of this page for an example of the table of contents in action. The table of contents at the top of this page has been dynamically created by the widget's javascript code without having to be hardcoded into the page.

Install

<!--

Summarize and TOC Blogger Widget summarizes and provides a
 table of contents for blogger posts

This program is free software; you can redistribute it
 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
 License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
 either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
 later version.
 
 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more
 details.
 
 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
 License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
 Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

Version 1

29 May 2007

(JE) TODO: find a way to efficiently summarize without 
            removing all or some html tags

TODO: offer different formats for the toc, like a
            drop-down.

-->
    <script>

</script>

<style>
  .tocH1 {margin-left: 0pt}
  .tocH2 {margin-left: 10pt}
  .tocH3 {margin-left: 20pt}
  .tocH4 {margin-left: 30pt}
  .tocH5 {margin-left: 40pt}
  .tocH6 {margin-left: 50pt}
</style>

Limitations

Since the summarize function removes HTML tags when summarizing, images and formatted text will not appear. To ensure an image shows up for a post when its summarized, use an img tag within the title of the post.
The summarize function will mess up google's beta translations.
There will be a delay until the page has completely loaded before the summarize or toc functions load and display the results. The delay can be fixed by ensuring the widget is placed after the posts and removing window.onload and just calling the functions directly.
The summarize function fails to engage when older posts are viewed through blogger's pagination.

References

Blogger Widget Generator

2007-05-27T19:50:00.000-06:00

If you have a blogger widget you would like to share. Fill in the forms below and click Generate! to build a web form that will allow others to easily add your widget to their own blog.

Widget Information

widget.title - (Optional) The title you specify will display in the user's Page Elements tab when they edit their layout. It will also be shown as part of the default widget template. The title can be up to 100 characters long, and may contain well-formed HTML.
infoURL - (Optional) You can use this to specify a page on your site that describes your widget or gives other information about it. It will be used as a "more info" link on the setup page people see when adding your widget.
logoURL - (Optional) You can add an image URL here, and the image will be displayed next to the "more info" link. It should be thumbnail sized (i.e. less than 100x100 pixels).

widget.content - (Required) This is the actual content of your widget, which will be displayed on the user's blog. It can include almost any well-formed code that you want, except for <html> and <body> tags. The widget generator will escape all >'s and <'s and encode scripts.
Script encoding is a work around that will keep blogger from choking on scripts during form transfer. To disable script encoding, put a space before the script keyword in the script tag; for example: < script> will disable script encoding, <script> will enable script encoding

widget.template - (Optional) This should follow the widget tag guidelines. You can also use any of the globally available data tags. If no template is specified, it uses <data:title/> <data:content/> as a default. The template is also escaped and script encoded (see widget.content above).

-->

Reference

Blogger Help: How do I create new widgets for other people to add to their layouts?

Batch function library loader

2007-05-19T20:18:00.000-06:00

I've put together a few functions that I find useful when doing batch scripting. I've attached the library of functions bellow. Included in the library are functions for multi-line out, file-prepending, and unsetting environment variables.

Syntax

call function :[function_name] [function_parameters]

[function_name]       - name of the function.
[function_parameters] - arguments to pass to the function.

Read the function documentation within the function.bat file for further information on variables specific to each function. Examples of each function included with the attached file are provided below.

Examples

unset

call function :unset path temp tmp username

The above example executes the function unset with the parameters: path, temp, tmp, and username. After executing the unset function each of the environment variables path, temp, tmp, and username will no longer exist.

prepend

call function :prepend history 1st I did this
call function :prepend history 2nd I did this

The above example executes the function prepend twice with two parameters: history and a string. After executing the prepend function the file named history will have the line: "2nd I did this" (without the quotes) as the first line of the file and the line: "1st I did this" (without the quotes) as the second line of the file.

out

goto output

Hello %username%,
Do you know the ^%TIME^%?

:output

call function :out %0 output

The above example builds a multi-line output and executes the function out with two parameters: the current filename and the target output. Notice the % symbols are escaped for TIME to prevent out from expanding the %TIME% variable. After executing the out function the following will appear on the display:


Hello John,
Do you know the %TIME%?

Note: the results of the out function can also be redirected to a file by appending the > operator.

Adding Functions

New functions can be added to the function library by adding a label and goto :EOF pair where the label is the name of the new function. For example the following code will add the hello function which will simply display Hello %1 where %1 is the first argument passed to hello.

:hello
    echo Hello %1
goto :EOF

After adding the above code to the function.bat file and typing:

call function :hello World!
call function :hello %username%!

will display:

Hello World!
Hello John!

A good collection of functions ready to be copied and pasted directly into the function file can be found at Ritchie Lawrence's Batch Function Library.

Download

function.bat

Clearlooks for Windows GTK+

2007-05-03T05:24:00.000-06:00

The Clearlooks theme engine for GTK+ is a great alternative to the wimp theme engine. Because Vista introduces some bugs into the wimp engine, I've taken a look at compiling Clearlooks for use on Windows. MinGW compiles Clearlook's code without any problems on Vista.

For those who don't have the GTK+ toolchain setup I've attached the binary compilation of Clearlooks 0.6.2 for windows. I've packed the binaries into an Installer that should put everything into the correct location. If the installer doesn't work like it should, just unzip the executable and copy all the files within the Files directory into the root of the GTK 2.0 directory.

The Installer creates a backup of the current GTK+ theme configuration, so upon uninstalling the Clearlooks theme GTK+ will switch back to the previous configuration. Any GTK+ applications will have to be restarted before theme changes take place.

Download

ClearLooks-Win32.zip

References

Clearlooks

Single Processor Mode in Vista

2007-05-01T19:14:00.000-06:00

Vista doesn't use boot.ini to configure the boot loader. Instead it uses bcdedit.exe and msconfig.exe To create a new boot entry that loads Vista in single processor mode follow the following steps:

Open cmd in administrator mode (press the windows key, type cmd, and press ctrl+shift+enter)
Type the command: bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Vista Single Processor" The command will return something like the following, but with a different number between the {}'s The entry was successfully copied to {68602c25-5097-11da-99de-000802209f1b}.
Type the following command and replace the portion that says ID with the number returned from the previous command. bcdedit /displayorder {ID} /addlast
Now type msconfig
Click the boot tab and check mark the Make all boot settings permanent box.
Select the Vista Single Processor entry and the click advanced options button.
Put a check next to Number of processors, select 1, and then put a check next to Detect HAL. Click OK.
Set the Timeout value to something like 3 secs. Click OK, click Yes, and Restart.
Select the Vista Single Processor Entry from the boot menu to boot Vista with one processor.

References

VLC on Vista

2007-05-01T16:23:00.000-06:00

Vista's Aero interface messes with VLC's ability to playback some videos on default settings. The video settings must be changed manually to DirectX video output. In VLC:

Select the Settings -> Preferences menu.
Expand the Video Section (click the plus next to video) and select Output modules
Check the Advanced options box and select DirectX video output.
Click Save and restart VLC.

Unfortunately, setting the output to DirectX will cause windows to disable Aero when playing back videos. The Windows GDI setting will avoid this, but won't have the hardware acceleration of DirectX and can't select menu items on DVDs. DirectX 3D will work for DVDs, but only for certain videos.

References

VLC Media Player Problem under Vista

MinGW and mSYS on Vista

2007-04-25T00:32:00.000-06:00

MinGW doesn't work well on Vista without adding some extra environment variables. The following environment variables will allow gcc to find its sub programs, the standard include paths and libraries when linking.

MinGW Variables

GCC_EXEC_PREFIX=c:\mingw
PATH=%GCC_EXEC_PREFIX%\libexec\gcc\mingw32\3.4.2;%PATH%
PATH=c:\mingw\bin;%PATH%

MinGW must be installed to the root directory. For example c:\tools\mingw will not work. It must be c:\mingw.

mSYS Variables

PATH=c:\msys\1.0\bin;%PATH%
HOME=%HOMEPATH%

Vista will force a User Access Control (UAC) message to elevate privileges whenever it detects a program with the words setup, install, or patch in the filename or description. However when a program is run from the command line, Vista will not bring up the (UAC) message and just deny access to the executable. To get around the problem make sure to work with elevated privileges when performing a make install or when patching.

Refferences

Giles, Aaron. "Solving the Windows Vista Build Issues."

Simple Batch script Program Installer

2007-04-23T00:54:00.000-06:00

The following batch script will install a program into the Program Files directory on the computer. The batch script will create and register an uninstaller, and create a shortcut in the Start Menu. To uninstall the program simply click the program's entry in the "Add / Remove Programs" control panel.

Usage

Pass the script the name of a directory containing an executable. The script assumes the directory and executable have similar names. If the names don't match, rename either the directory or the executable.

Requirements

The batch script will run on any Windows operating system. I have tested the batch script on Vista. Windows XP and 2000 should also work. To run the script on Windows 9x modify the startMenu variable to point to Windows 9x's start menu location.

Why?

Some programs don't have installers. Sometimes I'll put a program someplace and forget I have it because it doesn't show up in the start menu or in the "Add / Remove Programs" control panel.

Download

quickInstall.bat

sudo for Vista's User Access Control (UAC)

2007-04-22T05:14:00.000-06:00

By setting a SHELLEXECUTEINFO's lpVerb value to "runas" a call to ShellExecuteEx will cause the UAC to elevate the run privileges for a given program. The concept can be implemented into a simple program so that a behavior similar to linux's sudo command can be achieved.

Methods of Implementation

The ShellExecuteEx runas method can be implemented by any method that interfaces with the ShellExecuteEx API. The code provided below for download was written using c++. Within a visual basic script the ShellExecute function of the Shell.Application object can be used to invoke runas.

The command line tool `runas' provides similar functionality. However, the `runas' command is different enough that it can be confusing for users to use in Vista. The obvious difference is the command line vs. the graphical interface. Other differences include the inability for the `runas' command to accept empty passwords and recognize when the user already has elevated permissions.

Issues

Directory Change

When the runas verb is passed to ShellExecuteEx the current directory always gets reset to the %systemroot%/system32 directory. The lpDirectory variable has no effect. Therefore, to maintain the correct directory the directory must become part of the command that ShellExecuteEx runs. By wrapping the command to execute using runas within a %comspec% /c cd /d "directory" start /d "directory" call the correct directory is used when the command or file is executed.

User Context

The ShellExecuteEx runas method suffers from the same user context problems that haunt the command line tool `runas'. The context switch can cause problems for programs that access user specific areas and variables such as the username, home directory, desktop, or registry. For example, if an installation program is launched through `runas' by a non-administrative user an option such as "create desktop shortcut for local user" will create the shortcut on the administrators desktop NOT the desktop of the user that initialized the installation through the runas command.

There is a workaround to the context problem that would require the user to provide an administrative username and password and then provide their own non-administrative username and password. Aaron Margosis introduced the concept in his "Non-Admin" WebLog where he introduced his MakeMeAdmin batch script.

Download

addo.zip - Binary and Source (40.7 KB)
Readme.txt - Usage and Examples

References

TweakUAC has a package of functions to handle UAC events. The VistaTools.cxx package clued me into setting the lpVerb to "runas".

Nested Environment Variables

2007-04-20T23:56:00.000-06:00

The following workaround example shows how to nest environment variables inside of each other in a batch file. The nested variables can be used for specifying sub-string indices or replacements dynamically during runtime.

For example to remove the current directory from the path environment variable:

set path=%PATH:%CD%=%

does not work. However, the following code:

for /f "delims=" %%i in ('echo %%PATH:%CD%^=%%') do set path=%%i

will work fine.

References

Veli-Pekka Tätilä's A Modern Batch Programming Tutorial introduced the problem.
Mac's hint in Getting hold of the current directory in a batch file clued me into the technique.

Change the System Path from CMD

2007-04-20T01:16:00.000-06:00

The batch file provided below will change the system path from the command line. Pass the batch script a directory and it will add it to the system path. If the directory is already in the path it will remove it.

System Requirements

The script runs on any MS Windows OS that has uses the registry to store the system path. Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Vista all store the system path in the registry. For windows Vista the script will need to be run as an Administrator.

For information on how to run a batch file as an Administrator in Vista check out: http://www.vistaclues.com/run-a-batch-file-as-an-administrator/

Why?

Having important executables in the path can make command line work easier. Some applications that have been ported from the Linux environment are easier to work with if the system paths are setup correctly. Developers and administrators may find this script helpful.

Limitations

After updating the path the system does not refresh the current path variable to reflect the change. The system must be manually refreshed.

References

For those using Windows 95 or those who wish to check out a similar program can check out Modify Path: http://legroom.net/software/modpath

Download

UpdatePath

MyHD on Vista

2007-04-03T03:51:00.000-06:00

I am currently running a MyHD 100 card on Windows Vista without disabling the security features in Vista. The following is a list of steps and hints that can serve as a guide and reference.

Installation

Download the latest driver. The latest driver can be found either on Digital Connection or on the AVS Forum.
Install the driver using Windows XP compatibility mode.
Set both the MyIRC and MyHD executables to run in Windows XP compatibility mode and as an administrator.

Annoyances

The MyIRC executable must be explicitly allowed to run every time the computer starts.
Time Shifting must be manually enabled. See the issue below.

Issues

Do not enable "Full Time Shift." Enabling the Full Time Shift function will cause either an error message or a massive memory leak.
The drivers (1.66.1) I used do not properly support hibernate and suspend in Vista. Make sure to not use suspend or hibernate or the system will blue screen and reboot. Disable suspend in the power control panel.
Some functionality may not work as expected. It has been noted both on Digital Connection's MyHD FAQ and the MyHD FAQ on the AVS Forum that the DVD player and other functionality is disabled by the myHD program with Dual-Processor (DP)/HyperThreading (HT) (no matter what OS). The FAQ on the AVS Forum suggests disabling a processor/core or hyperthreading from either the bios or Windows boot.ini. Simply setting the process affinity will not work because the MyHD program specifically checks if the processor is DP or HT enabled. It may be possible to hack the binary to disable the DP and HT checking.

Program Categories

2007-03-03T14:44:00.000-06:00

The programs in the applications menu (start menu) can be organized into a standard arrangement that can reduce the effort needed to locate programs and related application files.

Freedesktop.org maintains a suggested standard for application categories. The latest can be found at <http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html>

The application categories I use are:

Accessories (Utilities)
-----------------------
Development
-----------
Games
-----
Graphics
--------
Multimedia (Sound & Video, Audio & Video)
------------------------------------------
Network (Internet)
------------------
Office
------
Startup
-------
System (System Tools)
---------------------

The preceding list was developed by comparing KDE and GNOME application categories present in default installations of Ubuntu, SUSE, and Mandriva distributions. The list contains common elements found within the distributions and the freedesktop standard.

Side Note: Recent application launchers now allow instant searching for a desired application which may supersede the need to keep an organized application launch structure. Users of Windows XP also can obtain the instant application search and launch functionality through the use of third party tools such as Google Desktop and Launchy.

Portable GVIM with Cream

2007-02-15T15:12:00.002-06:00

The following steps can be taken to create a portable GVIM with the Cream configuration.

Download

Portable GVIM from http://portablegvim.sourceforge.net/
cream source from http://cream.sourceforge.net/download.html

Setup

Extract the GVIM portable into a folder.
Create a folder in the GVimPortable\App\vim\vim71directory called cream.
Extract the Cream source files into the folder created in the previous step.

Create a batch file in the same folder as the GVimPortable executable with the following information:

@echo off
set location=%~d0%~p0
start "" "%location%\GVimPortable.exe" -u "%location%\App\vim\vim71\cream\creamrc" -i "%location%\Data\settings\.viminfo" -U NONE "--servername" "CREAM" "%*"

Note

This tutorial was originally written for vim70 and a version of cream older than 4.0 but has since been updated to work with vim71 and cream 4.0.
For future versions, change the paths to correctly reflect the vim version and modify the start line of the batch file as needed.. The correct start line can be derived from inspecting the line after the :RUNCREAM label within the cream.bat file located within the cream source files.

John's Computer Journal

Ctrl - Alt - H to Show and Hide Hidden Files

Simple Tomboy like Notes in Windows

RIFE framework analysis

Dynamic Image Sizing (Zoom) for Firefox

Usage

Limitations

Javascript Code

Summarize and TOC Blogger Widget

Requirements

Usage

Summarize

Table of Contents (TOC)

Examples

Summarize

Table of Contents

Install

Limitations

References

Blogger Widget Generator

Widget Information

Generated Widget

Test

Code

Reference

Batch function library loader

Syntax

Examples

unset

prepend

out

Adding Functions

Download

Clearlooks for Windows GTK+

Download

References

Single Processor Mode in Vista

VLC on Vista

References

MinGW and mSYS on Vista

MinGW Variables

mSYS Variables

Refferences

Simple Batch script Program Installer

Usage

Requirements

Why?

Download

sudo for Vista's User Access Control (UAC)

Methods of Implementation

Issues

Directory Change

User Context

Download

References

Nested Environment Variables

Change the System Path from CMD

System Requirements

Why?

Limitations

References

Download

MyHD on Vista

Installation

Annoyances

Issues

Program Categories

Portable GVIM with Cream

Download

Setup

Note