Free42 (windows) portable instructions

[ornithorhynchus]

The README.txt file which comes with Free42 for windows contains the following :-

Quote:Copy Free42Decimal.exe (or Free42Binary.exe, or both) to wherever you want it,
e.g. create a directory "C:\Program Files\Free42" and put it there.
When Free42 runs, it will create three additional files; they are state.bin,
print.bin, and keymap.txt, and they are used to store the calculator's internal
state, the contents of the print-out window, and the PC keyboard map,
respectively.
By default, these additional files will be stored in %APPDATA%\Free42, which is
typically C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Free42.
If you want to run Free42 from a removable drive, like a USB stick, and keep
the state.bin, print.bin, and keymap.txt file with Free42 on that drive, create
a file named "portable" in the same directory as Free42Decimal.exe or
Free42Binary.exe. When Free42 sees this file, it will ignore %APPDATA%\Free42
and keep those files in its own directory.

It does not work that way for me. The three files

• state.bin
• print.bin
• keymap.txt
  

do not get created in the portable folder, but are created in the Free42 folder, and the portable folder remains empty.

The folder structure is like this after the first run of Free42.exe

Blaah
|_Free42
|_portable
| |_ (empty)
|
|_Free42Binary.exe
|_Free42Decimal.exe
|_keymap.txt
|_print.bin
|_README.txt
|_state.bin
|_Untitled.f42

This caused me some grief: the initial program I wrote disappeared, so I had to resort to using \Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Plus42\"

What am I doing wrong?

[SammysHP]

(10-23-2022 01:51 AM)ornithorhynchus Wrote:  What am I doing wrong?

Don't create a directory, create a file:

Quote:[…] create a file named "portable" in the same directory as Free42Decimal.exe or Free42Binary.exe.

edit: Apparently it doesn't matter, see below.

[Thomas Okken]

(10-23-2022 01:51 AM)ornithorhynchus Wrote:  What am I doing wrong?

The app is doing what it's supposed to.

The 'portable' item may be a file or a directory, that's irrelevant. But what it does is to indicate to Free42 instances installed alongside it that they should put their state, print-out and keymap files alongside the executable. So, not inside the 'portable' directory. 'Portable', whether it's a file or a directory, is just a signal to Free42 not to use %APPDATA% to store its state and keymap.

[ornithorhynchus]

Thanks for the clarifying replies. I see that I failed to fully comprehend the instructions, perhaps going down the wrong path because windows lacks a 'touch' command to easily create an empty file but I do know how to create an empty directory. Assumptions, assumptions!