The popularity of app and workspace portability is still high, and many applications are available that give you a virtual identity on a USB device that fits in your pocket. If you work as a developer, there may have been days when you could not carry a laptop with you. It becomes challenging when you might need to code in an IDE like Pyscripter at such times. USB flash drives help a lot since these thumb-sized devices are something you can pop in your pocket and easily carry with you everywhere you go. Did you know you can set up your USB stick to allow you develop your code and apps on the move without relying on tools and programs installed on any particular machine? Portable apps help make that possible. In this article, we will go over the concept of a portable app and then discuss how to use PyScipter as a portable Python IDE.
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What is a Portable app?
A portable program doesn’t require an installer. A single folder, which you can install anywhere on the system, contains all files necessary to operate the application. The app will continue to function even if you relocate the folder. An executable file for a portable app is often downloaded as a ZIP file, extracted to a folder, and run. If you save settings, they are saved in files in the same folder as the app.
What are the pros of a portable app?
The main advantage of adopting portable apps is obvious: they are portable. Put them on a USB drive to transfer them from computer to computer, for instance. They won’t leave any residue on the computers you use to operate them. Everything is saved directly in the portable app’s folder on the USB drive, including any settings you’ve saved. It functions similarly to how MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 did when they were first released.
Portable apps can be useful even if you don’t switch between computers. They have a reduced impact on your PC, typically smaller and lighter than most installable programs. You can sync them with your other PCs’ settings. Alternatively, you can use an app just once without worrying about contaminating your system.
Yes, you will inevitably need to install apps. They either require leverage of Windows’ multi-user or security features or are too huge to run as portable apps. You can pick between an installer and a ZIP when downloading a program because many of them are available in both forms.
Are there any downsides to portable apps?
Of course, employing portable apps has its drawbacks. Windows User Account Controls (UAC) for portable apps don’t function the same way as permanently installed apps and they are more vulnerable to non-administrative operations.
Another drawback is that portable programs are frequently not developed with simultaneous users in mind. Since you’re presumably making a portable drive that you can use for yourself, this probably isn’t a significant concern. However, if a program needs to be used by numerous people, you’ll need multiple copies of the app folder on your portable drive, or everyone will need to utilize the same settings.
Lastly, if you’re using a USB drive to run portable applications, take care to properly ‘eject’ the device rather than simply unplug it from the USB socket. Otherwise, you risk corrupting the programs or causing improper setting savings. Some PCs also are subject to trouble correctly handling USB devices when the PC is put to sleep or hibernate. Unfortunately, it’s relatively common to find some PCs nowadays don’t manage sleep well.
What are some features of portable IDEs?
The idea behind portable IDEs is the same as that of portable apps. Portable IDEs don’t require installation and don’t alter your PC’s settings. You can store portable IDEs anywhere, as long as there is enough capacity, including on an internal drive, an external storage device like a USB stick or SD card, a networked drive, or a cloud storage service like OneDrive or DropBox.
Similar to portable apps, portable IDEs have several benefits, including the ability to run on machines with restricted user permissions, the ability to carry your software with you when switching between computers, and the fact that they don’t interfere with any other installed programs.
Some portable IDEs come with an “installer,” but don’t be alarmed—this just unzips a compressed file archive and saves the extracted files to a location of your choice—it doesn’t alter your system files in any way. Although the application is an EXE file, the extracted folder also includes related files, such as fonts and settings, which are necessary to function.
What are some examples of Portable IDEs?
There are several postable IDEs available today. Let’s discuss a few.
Microsoft created Visual Studio Code, usually referred to as VS Code, a source-code editor for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Visual Studio Code supports a portable mode. This mode makes it possible for any data that VS Code creates and maintains to reside close to one another so that it can be transported between environments. The installation folder location for VS Code extensions can also be adjusted in this mode, which is handy in corporate settings when doing so would violate restrictions against installing extensions in the Windows AppData folder which is the default place for the non-portable mode install.
The Eclipse IDE is well-known for its Java Integrated Development Environment (IDE), but it also contains a ton of other awesome IDEs, such as C/C++, JavaScript/TypeScript, PHP, and more. Eclipse also has a portable version with which you can develop software directly from your removable mass storage device, even without admin rights.
Is PyScripter a portable Python IDE?
Yes, there is a portable version of PyScipter. Portable PyScripter, initially developed as an integrated development environment for Delphi applications, is now a stand-alone Python IDE.
It shows a user-friendly interface yet has a lot of powerful functions within easy reach. It offers an editor with syntax highlighting, a built-in Python interpreter with debugging, editor views, and code exploration.
The program is simple to use and is made to seem like other Python-compatible development tools. The application’s window components can be rearranged or made to float. You have access to an interactive interpreter, message windows, file, code, and project explorer windows with Portable PyScripter. The editor in Portable PyScripter is robust. Drag and drop operations can be used for editing, context-aware indentation, brace highlighting, and syntax highlighting.
You may construct templates by saving the layouts with specified names, a nice feature that takes advantage of the rearrangeable interface. Using one template for script editing and another for debugging enables you to design tailored layouts for various work phases.
The application offers you a variety of text editing tools and features because you utilize text throughout the entire coding process. For example, you can cut, copy, and paste material, enter and dedent code blocks, add different parameters, and select the appropriate encoding. You may also import Python scripts, run a syntax check, and debug them.
You can use this complete tool to run your Python programs in various ways. The integrated debugger, running without debugging, and even running outside of the application are all options for debugging.
What is the best portable Python IDE?
It’s easy to make the choice – PyScripter is a purpose-built Python IDE designed to be the best possible choice of Python IDE. The portable app version of PyScripter has all the full power of PyScripter’s tooling, editing, debugging and code editing capabilities natively built in. It is produced as a native Windows app not based on the Electron framework unlike VS Code so it doesn’t suffer from the same large memory usage that often occurs with Electron-based apps. Unlike Eclipse’s Java-centric origins PyScripter is specifically designed for editing and executing Python code and Python programs.
