Many open source programs run on Windows as portable apps on a USB stick.
Portable Apps, means they run directly off a USB stick.   The setup installs directly
to the USB drive letter, instead of the harddrive. So they can be easily moved from
PC to PC as quickly as inserting a USB stick.  And, it works excellent, I think, having
tested it on a LAN with dozens of client PCs.

Now, I make no recommendations because this post is not about promotion at all.
This post is about sharing what I personally found to be a big convenience.
For me, this in many ways beats lugging around my Linux laptop.
So, for reference only, here is the website: https://portableapps.com

So far, I have enjoyed the convenience of:
Portable Blender, Portable GIMP, Portable FileZilla FTP, and Portable Notepad++
But there are many more Portable Apps on the website which I want to try.

Dave Morton was my influence, when his LPC thumbdrive sparked my curiosity.
The first thing I setup was XAMPP with PHP, Apache webserver, MySQL and more.
There is much more good news, but I will save a few surprises for future discussion here.

That reminds me! I have to start getting Morti ready! Thanks, 8-Man!

You're welcome, Dave.   Nice to hear from you.

Presently, I am trying to build the Mingw-w64 GCC toolchain on a USB drive.

Mingw-w64 supports both 32bit and 64bit Windows.


As for chatbots, there is a Portable App for phpMyAdmin for MySQL.

It may come in handy.

You may wish to check out uWamp. It's a full Windows AMPP stack (Apache, MySQL & PHP - no Perl or Python, however) that not only runs on a USB drive, it also comes with phpMyAdmin, which is certainly a bonus. The user interface is easy to use and navigate, and allows direct access to the config files for the various stack components without having to hunt for them. This is what I used to get Bruce Wilcox's ChatScript bot to play nicely with the new LPP, which uses Node.js and Socket.io, by creating a bridge between the various protocols that were in play. While I was helping Bruce with his Loebner Prize entry, I realized that I could do the same with Program O, and my bot, Morti. Anyway, long story short, check out uWamp. It has phpMyAdmin built in, and you won't find an easier way to have a portable web server for Windows on a USB stick.

Thanks.  I'll pickup a blank USB thumbdrive and check out uWamp.
You have talent, Dave.  That was really very cool what you did for Bruce.
Oh, and I wonder if there will be an LPC in 2018?

May I suggest you check out  XAMPP?
XAMPP does Perl, Apache, MariaDB, and PHP (and I think phpMyAdmin too?)
And, XAMPP works cross-platform on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Morti could be everywhere!

As for Portable Apps for Artificial Intelligence... I noticed they offer
SWI-Prolog as a Portable App on the website.



Wow!  That's four separate topics, in one post...  Sorry about that!

Let me just say once again, that I certainly am not trying to promote
Portable Apps, here.  I respect datahopa.co.uk rules. My discussion
here is how I am personally enjoying the convenience and reliability,
they seem to offer.

I don't think you need to worry about having run afoul of any rules, 8pla. You're good.

As to XAMPP, it really isn't to my liking, since I haven't worked with Perl since the 1990's, and much prefer MySQL over MAriaDB. Besides, other than certain niche projects such as Bruce's, I've always preferred to "roll my own" server stack. It may be nothing but an illusion but I feel that I have more discreet control over the stack, and I've always felt it's well worth the extra effort. It could also be, however, that I'm just set in my ways, which is a dead giveaway that I'm getting old. {sigh!}

I agree, Dave.  The LPC has traditionally been all Windows, so
I would prefer your LPC proven solution because it is all Windows.
Thanks for sharing the inside scoop on your LPC solution with us.

Interestingly, Michael Widenius, MySQL co-founder, named MySQL
after his daughter "My".  MariaDB is drop-in replacement by the
original MySQL developers.   So, if you like MySQL, maybe support
the new efforts by the original developers

Getting old is a good thing. Most people realize the latest is
no longer the greatest.  Take for example, Perl, or C Langauge,
they may be old, but they are still more powerful in many ways
than any of the newer technologies.

So what do you think about Portable Apps running off a USB stick,
no longer PC dependent?