I have just discovered SMath Studio. Wow!
I am trying to use version 0.93, build 4446 portable. I am using Windows XP Pro SP3.
I have the executable in D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad
When I run the program the dialogs inside, such as open and save show folders such as book, entries, examples, lan, plugins, snippets in the same folder as the exe file. However, these folders are NOT visible in Windows Explorer.
Also, I created a small test file and saved it in the entries folder. You can see it in the Recent section of the settings.inf file:
Recent=D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad\entries\jktest.sm|D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad\examples\GravitationAcceleration.sm|D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad\examples\RomanNumerals.sm|D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad\examples\Newton.sm|D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad\examples\RungeKutta5.sm|D:\download\Software\SMath-likeMathCad\examples\Beam.sm

When I exit and reload the program it is no longer there. Trying to open it from the Recent Files menu gives a "file does not exist". Note that the Recent= content above was from the settings folder after I reopened the program.

I must be doing something very basically wrong, but what?

TIA

JK

Hello,

Did you use portable version (SMathStudioDesktop.0_93.Portable.exe) or install version (SMathStudioDesktop.0_93.Setup.msi)?

Regards,
Radovan

Hi,
I used the portable version, not the installed version.
Thanks,
JK

Hello,

In portable version you might have problems with disappearing subfolders after closing SMath, as you experienced. Save your files in some folder that you made yourself before starting SMath portable version - or just install SMath regularly.

Regards,
Radovan

Thanks Radovan,

The folders not only disappear when I close SMath Portable, they are not visible in Windows Explorer even while SMath is open! They are only visible through the dialogs from the File menu in SMath, such as File|Open or File|Save. This means that the files that come with SMath, such as the examples and the "book", are invisible from the system level. How common an issue is this?

JK

Hello,

Wrote

...This means that the files that come with SMath, such as the examples and the "book", are invisible from the system level. How common an issue is this?

I am not an expert in this matter, but this is due to the portable mechanism (called Xenocode) used by Andrey in making the portable SMath version. If you want to save the examples from within SMath, just open them and save in another folder made by yourself (make it before running SMath). They will not disappear then.

Regards,
Radovan

That's a fair work around. It does not address the files that are not .sm or otherwise openable in SMath, such as the .dll or .lang files. That may not matter, I guess, as long as the program can find them. Very strange behavior.

Thanks for your help.

JK

BTW, do you know where the server for this board is? I am posting at 10:30AM EDT equal to 1430 UTC on Monday, and it is showing as 9:30 PM on Sunday!

Wrote

BTW, do you know where the server for this board is? ...

No, I have no idea about it.

Regards,
Radovan

Quote

BTW, do you know where the server for this board is?

A simple traceroute shows the location: St. Petersburg

Regards

Wrote

Very strange behavior.

SMath Studio Portable - is a virtual machine (based on Xenocode technology) with its own file system. It includes all components required to run the program within it's own individual context. Because of this behavior we can use portable package on every possible system (according to VM requirements). This is also a great possibility for many of users to run program without any setup procedure.

If you need to discover files used by SMath Sudio you can download msi installer and to instal it on your PC.

Best regards, Andrey Ivashov.

Thanks Andrey.

I saved one of my working test files outside of what I now know to be the VM file structure and it persisted after I closed SMath, so that addresses the concern I had of saving work and having it disappear. I generally try to use portable versions of software, even if on my hard drive, to reduce the impact on the machine, but I think installing this may make more sense. If you will accept a suggestion from a newbie with about 1 day's experience with SMAth, you may wish to put a notice somewhere that advises users to save in a separate location if they are using the portable version.

Before I logged in to post this reply I saw that (you changed) the time stamps on the messages to UTC. When I logged in, they reverted to the previous time stamps, which seem to be about 24 hours behind reality, if they are local time, and 18 hours behind reality if they are UTC. The UTC times I saw before logging in were also behind by a significant part of a day.

Jack