Minimum Profit (scriptable text editor)

[Midas]

Zanily named Minimum Profit (MP) is a unique critter, an OSS truly multi-platform lightweight text editor made largely from text file scripts written in its own scripting language (dubbed MPSL, http://triptico.com/software/mpsl.html).

[MP is] A text editor for programmers including the following features: fully scriptable, using a C-like scripting language; unlimited undo levels; complete Unicode support; multiple files can be edited at the same time and blocks copied and pasted among them; syntax highlighting for many popular languages/file formats; use of tags, created by the external utility ctags, to move instantaneously to functions or variables inside your current source tree; intelligent help system, pressing F1 over any word triggers the underlying system help; understandable interface, drop-down menus, reasonable default key bindings; configurable keys, menus and colors; text templates can be easily defined/accessed; multiplatform (console/curses, Qt4, KDE4, GTK+, MS Windows); automatic indentation, word wrapping, internal grep, learning/repeating functions; spellchecking support (via ispell); multilingual; password-protected, encrypted text files (ARCFOUR algorithm).

The Windows MP version includes GUI and console executables with a very reasonable disk cost of around 1MB. Only an INNO installer is available for download but it can easily be (Uni)extracted.

There's a little tale related to my testing of MP, because it wasn't easy to figure was how to run it without installation, as every attempt silently failed...

Well, trying the CLI version did spit out an unhelpful "mp_core.mpsl was not found in INC", so I tried creating 'INC' and placing a copy of the scripts there. To no avail. The documentation also mentions a '.mp.mpsl' config file, which I searched for and, having not found it, created inside MP folder. Still no go (BTW, its default location is inside 'My Documents'). Fearing a fluke, I decided to install MP to make sure it worked. It did. But the extracted copy still refused to do so. I checked for stray command line parameters or registry settings but found none.

On a wild guess I figured MP was probably having trouble finding its location, so I created a file shortcut (right-click and drag the EXE, choose "Create shortcuts here"; the location is provided on the "Start in" field content). Bingo!

For the console version the trick was to launch the corresponding executable with the absolute file name -- i.e. including the full path. Counter-intuitively, when the console version was launched via double mouse click, the mouse couldn't interact with it, which surprisingly it could when MP was invoked from the command prompt. Yet more dumbfounding, after the first run, MP now starts directly without any problems, EVEN AFTER MOVING its folder. I still couldn't find any traces in the system, so I'm assuming MP modified one of its own scripts...

It would be interesting to hear how others fare.

Another MP oddity is that although it works on Windows, you'll have to look at the Linux side of Softpedia to find a mention of it (http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Text-Edi ... -719.shtml). IMHO, MP is overall a very interesting offer for power-users willing to deal with some quirkiness -- be sure to check its 'doc' folder (and, if you're gaming oriented, have a look at "Options | Play Pipes" menu).

Download MP latest version (v5.2.8; don't be fooled by that "1999-01-01" date heading on the homepage, development is ongoing, the latest release is 7 months old) from http://triptico.com/software/mp.html#downloads.

[I am Baas]

The shortcut method does not work for me under Win 7-64. What did work was placing the application folder in Program Files (x86)\mp-5 but it would not save/remember settings.

I also installed MP 5.2.8 (sandboxed); it writes to the registry.

[Midas]

Rechecking it, I just found out I had forgotten to uninstall it...

Once I did it, MP no longer worked elsewhere, so I'm forced to conclude that '%PROGRAMFILES%' is somehow hard-coded. Sad, really, because MP held much promise...

it writes to the registry.

I didn't find anything; please, can you reveal more details?

@webfork: please move. Thanks.

[angelortega]

Hi, MP author here. I see that you are having some issues when installing the thing on Windows, but I cannot fully understand what is the problem. Do you want to install it without the installer?

I'll be glad to be of any help.

Best regards,
Angel Ortega

[Midas]

Hi, angelortega, it's great to have you here. Congratulations, that's quite a nifty little editor you have built.

I see that you are having some issues when installing the thing on Windows, but I cannot fully understand what is the problem. Do you want to install it without the installer?

This is "The Portable Freeware Collection" (http://www.portablefreeware.com/about.php) discussion forums, where the discussion is about running Windows programs without installation ("portable") and without leaving unnecessary traces in the system afterwards ("stealth"); there are many reasons for this, some at the site's FAQ -- see http://www.portablefreeware.com/faq.php#three, for example... (and see also http://portableapps.com/, for another like minded site among many).

So, it's not really a matter of running MP without the installer, but primarily of running it without installation. And it seems that Minimum Profit, by reasons I was unable to figure, is only able to run after it's installed to '%PROGRAMFILES%\md-5' -- I know that is customary way, but is there a more substantial reason for it?

Thanks for caring.

[angelortega]

> Hi, angelortega, it's great to have you here. Congratulations, that's quite a nifty little editor you have built.

Thank you very much.

> So, it's not really a matter of running MP without the installer, but primarily of running it without installation. And it seems that Minimum Profit, by reasons I was unable to figure, is only able to run after it's installed to '%PROGRAMFILES%\md-5' -- I know that is customary way, but is there a more substantial reason for it?

That's the only reason. Up to this version, the installation directory (on Windows) was hardcoded to %PROGRAMFILES%\mp-5, but some users complained that they could not change it to other places, so I made it use a registry entry set by the installer to know the installation path. Anyway, this can be overrided (and always could) by setting the MP_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to the place where the .mpsl files live -- so if you set MP_LIBRARY_PATH=. the MP executable will search its files in the current directory and work seamlessly.

No other tweak is needed to run MP portably.

If you have any other question, please ask.

Best regards,
Angel

[smaragdus]

@Midas
Minimum Profit is available at the Windows section of Softpedia too- http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-too ... ofit.shtml.

[TP109]

@Midas
Minimum Profit is available at the Windows section of Softpedia too- http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-too ... ofit.shtml.

I get a 404 error at the above link when trying to download it. I found it here:
http://triptico.com/download/mp/

Also, it works if you create a user environment variable MP_LIBRARY_PATH with the installed location as suggested by the developer. Not really portable using this method, but it isn't portable anyway since it writes to the registry. Interesting project nevertheless and good to know about this editor.

[Midas]

YMMV, but my copy of Minimum Profit was totally portable when I ran it with the following batch file:

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF
SET MP_LIBRARY_PATH=%~dp0
START "" mp-5c.exe

[TP109]

Previous posters in this thread indicated it wrote to the registry. I didn't check myself, just relying on what was posted. Great idea with the batch file.

[juverax]

Minimum Profit is now at 5.57 updated on Feb 3 2022 at Softpedia: https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-to ... ofit.shtml