Is a Portable Version Possible?

[Huggybaby]

Is it possible to make a portable version of mtgforge so that it will run on machines that don't have Java installed?

[zerker2000]

Eh? How do you get more portable than java?! I guess you could get a .jar>.exe compiler off somewhere on the internet, but I do not see why you cannot just install java on target machine.

[Huggybaby]

Portable means running an app without installing it, along with all the registry entries, and menus, and shortcuts, and on and on. There are plenty of reasons not to install Java.

but I do not see why you cannot just install java on target machine.

I can, but I don't want to. So, my question remains.

I know it's possible anyway: http://www.pendriveapps.com/portable-ja ... lashdrive/
I just wanted to see if anyone here had thought about it. Java is a pig you know. When it updates, it downloads a new version without deleting the old one, so the versions accumulate. And it wants to autoupdate all the time. And it's not very fast. <edit> And it will install the Yahoo search bar if you're not paying attention. </edit>

There are good things about java, but there are plenty of bad things too.

[Chris H.]

There is another issue to consider, the minimum resolution supported by the program is 1024 x 768. While the game is playable on a screen this small, most people would want to have a larger screen.

[Huggybaby]

It looks like you can use JSmooth: http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/features.php along with a JRE to make a standalone version that runs from an exe.

[DennisBergkamp]

There is another issue to consider, the minimum resolution supported by the program is 1024 x 7368. While the game is playable on a screen this small, most people would want to have a larger screen.

What Huggy meant is, is it possible to make a "portable" version, that can run on any PC / Mac without having Java installed.
But then again, a portable version of forge would be cool. I'd love to play it on my DS or iPod touch
Luckily, the PSP has Wagic, which is awesome.

[nelyn]

It looks like you can use JSmooth: http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/features.php along with a JRE to make a standalone version that runs from an exe.

I wonder if using this would eleminate the class error I posted about....

[mtgrares]

The best "portable" version of Magic is probably Wagic. It is designed for a small screen and doesn't require Java.

Compiling a Java program into a "pure" executable file that doesn't require Java seems hard and complicated and JSmooth doesn't do that. It just creates a "Java wrapper" executable file that searches for the Java runtime library, so the Java program can run and act like a regular, non-Java program.

I know all of this is very technical and maybe a little confusing. Java requires a Java Runtime Library in order to run Java. So every computer, Windows, Mac, Linux has to have the Java Runtime Library installed in order to run a Java program. Transforming a Java program into a regular executable program that doesn't need the Java Runtime Library sounds very good but only commercial programs can really do it.

(Microsoft's .Net is the same as Java, it needs to have the runtime library installed in order to work. Plain executable files are quickly going out of style.)

[Huggybaby]

I understand it's only a wrapper, and I'm not asking for a true exe. As I read it, you can configure JSmooth to search the local folder for a JRE, so Java does not need to be installed, it just has to be present in the forge folder.

[silly freak]

so everything you want to avoid is really installing the JRE, but you don't mind having it on your hard disk?
I don't see the way in which this problem comes from forge. no matter how you get your JRE, you can always do java -jar to run forge (given the JRE is recent enough)

have I overlooked something?

[Huggybaby]

so everything you want to avoid is really installing the JRE, but you don't mind having it on your hard disk?

Yes, for the last time, that's what a portable app does.

I don't see the way in which this problem comes from forge.

Uh, because forge requires Java to be installed.

no matter how you get your JRE, you can always do java -jar to run forge (given the JRE is recent enough)

Do you use Windows? Because even if I open a command prompt (which would be antithetical to having a portable app) this wouldn't work.

[frwololo]

Java is a pig you know. When it updates, it downloads a new version without deleting the old one, so the versions accumulate. And it wants to autoupdate all the time. And it's not very fast. <edit> And it will install the Yahoo search bar if you're not paying attention. </edit>

Wow I thought I was the only one pissed off by that.
I was very angry the day I discovered Java was taking 1.5GB on my 40GB hard drive, because of not deleting old versions.

[Huggybaby]

Yeah, I'm a fan of machine language myself, but only Steve Gibson seems to be using that any more. One utility to clean up all those old Java versions is here:
http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/12/01/javara-update-java-and-remove-old-versions/

[mtgrares]

I understand it's only a wrapper, and I'm not asking for a true exe. As I read it, you can configure JSmooth to search the local folder for a JRE, so Java does not need to be installed, it just has to be present in the forge folder.

Oops my mistake. I understand what you are going for. How to run a Java program without installing Java. I have used JSmooth and maybe I can get MTG Forge to run by including some Java files. The whole download would probably be 50-100MB but I'm not sure.

I use Java because it is the language that I know the best. While Java isn't perfect, it is very nice because it also runs on Mac's and Linux without any changes.

[Huggybaby]

Thanks. The latest JRE I have is JRE 6 u16, and it zips to less than 19 MB.