Portable Programming IDE

Question

Frequently I'm brainstormed with programming ideas that I would like to directly code. More or less like "Wow, that algorithm will rock! I need to write it now!".

For this kind of "impulse" to write, I use http://www.jarte.com/ that is a cool portable text editor. If I'm near a cybecafe or a friend computer, I just plug the usb pen drive and start to write...

So, I would like: 1) a portable minimalist IDE 2) with minimal OS requirement (ie.: I want run from XP, Vista, etc...) 3) any modern language (I can learn a new language if needed. I just want write/test the algoritm) 4) Syntax Highlight/intellisense is good, but not required 5) Free

Is there something like this?

Answer 1

I'm late to the game, but a something worth mentioning is Squeak Smalltalk, or one of its derivatives like Pharo or Croquet. No changes to the registry or OS, no installers, no Services, no Admin rights needed, and only a few files needed- a full install in half a dozen files.

1) binary and source portable code; nice IDE, but with a minimalist disk footprint (5-50 MB)

2) Runs on almost any OS- one cross-platform binary image and a small virtual machine executable for each platform- one for 95/98/ME/XP/2k/XP/Vista/7/2003/2008; one for WinCE, one for OS X, one for Linux x86, etc.; (0.5-2 MB) for each platform. You can even boot onto bare metal, if you're hardcore.

3) It's Smalltalk. Birthplace of most buzz-worthy Ruby features...

4) Syntax Highlight and some level of intellisense is good built-in.

5) Free as in speech and beer.

Smalltalk isn't for everyone, but it's my personal fave. The fact that I can use the same binary image on my XP desktop, Linux server, iPhone and WinCE PDA without recompilation is a great bonus.