Using UE3 (Ultraedit for U3) as text editor

[TimA]

I have just purchased TC and Ultraedit and am running both on my USB thumb drive (along with Open Office and Opera). I have been trying to configure TC use UltraEdit as my default editor.
Under Configuration|Operation|Edit/View|Editor
I cannot select UE because it does not appear as an .exe file
The actual path is
[Drive]:\System\Apps\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\ue3e.u3p
I have tried pasting this into the editor and get a "File not found!" error when I click on Edit or F4.
Is there a workaround for this?

Thanks in advance.

[karlchen]

Hi, TimA.

Sorry, I only use T.C. on a normal USB stick where re-configuring it to use the text editor located on the same stick is no problem at all. - In short, I cannot tell you how to achieve your goal on a U3 USB stick. (Did not find anything about U3 inside the T.C. WIKI pages e.g.)

Yet, I can tell you that you posted in the wrong sub-forum. T.C. on a U3 stick is not T.C. for PocketPC, but the normal T.C. for desktop machines / notebooks.

So could a moderator please move the thread to the English forum?

Regards,
Karl

[Hacker]

Right.

[mod]Moved to the English forum.

Hacker (Moderator)[/mod]

[HolgerK]

... Is there a workaround for this?

http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=136319#136319

HTH,
Holger

[TimA]

Thanks for putting me on track and sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

c:\Documents and Settings\Tim\Application Data\U3\00001519C6604FFD\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\Exec\ue3.exe

Is the location of the Ultraedit exe file on my local hard drive with U3 running, I would like to know how to adapt this for any pc I use my USB stick with.

I'm not sure how to point to it using the paths in the post that HolgerK directed me too.

"%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\ ???
%U3_DEVICE_PATH%\ ???

Thanks again.

[karlchen]

Hello, TimA.

I strongly assume that HolgerK's example given here translated to your UltraEdit will give this:

c:\Documents and Settings\Tim\Application Data\U3\00001519C6604FFD\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\Exec\ue3.exe

== using "%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%" ==>

"%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\..\..\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\Exec\ue3.exe"

Note:
The bold formatting has been inserted in order to explain which part seems to be fixed. The fixed part seems to be appended to the string "%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\..\..".

Hopefully my analogy is really correct and the commandline works well.

Regards,
Karl
--
[corrected]
Corrected "i_view32.exe" to be "ue3.exe". Thanks to HolgerK for pointing to this error (see message below).
[/corrected]

[HolgerK]

...Hopefully my analogy is really correct and the commandline works well.

That's right.
Only one correction (copy & paste ):

"%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\..\..\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\Exec\ue3.exe"

Additional info:
- 97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB is the GUID (global unique identifier) for the specific program (Ultraedit)
- 00001519C6604FFD is the specific number of the U3 stick.

Kind regards,
Holger

[TimA]

First of all, sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Other "more pressing" life issues came up.

I have tried cutting and pasting as mentioned but get the following behaviour.

1 - I get the error (screen shot of both monitors, sorry about the size). Error shows in left window, scroll over to the right window and see that I:\ is my U3 drive.
Image: http://www.magma.ca/~tappleby/files/TC_F4_error.gif

2 - After I click on OK for the error message. There is a delay of about 10 seconds then UltraEdit opens briefly and then closes.

This is not a life or death issue but I would like to be able to use F3 to edit documents as I travel with my U3 USB stick, so any further help would be appreciated.

[HolgerK]

1 - I get the error (screen shot of both monitors, sorry about the size). Error shows in left window, scroll over to the right window and see that I:\ is my U3 drive.
Image: http://www.magma.ca/~tappleby/files/TC_F4_error.gif

This doesn't look like a Total Commander message box.
- Window title shows "Error" instead of "Total Commander".
- "Critical icon" instead of "Exclamation icon".
- Also the shown GUID: "F95C45380-nnn..nnn\Data\IDMCmp"
is complete different to the GUID of UltraEdit.

Maybe a misconfiguration of UltraEdit, or a non existing file in UltraEdits recent file list.
I'm not a UltraEdit User, so sorry don't know how to fix this.

..I would like to be able to use F3 to edit documents...

F3(View)? or did you mean F4 (Edit)?

Kind regards,
Holger

[TimA]

HolgerK - I did mean F4 not F3, that's a typo sorry.

However the message that pops up is what happens if I select a file to edit within TC and click F4. This is very confusing as I have
"%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\..\..\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\Exec\ue3.exe"
as the path to my Ultraedit in TC configuration.
I get the same message from my computer here at work as on my 2 pcs at home, with the only difference being the drive letter (E: at work I: or G: at home)

The location UE3 is running from on all 3 computers is:

c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\U3\00001519C6604FFD\97565974-179A-47DD-84A6-8206D15BF8FB\Exec\ue3.exe

I get the same error message and behaviour that's in my screen shot if I try that path in my configuration. It wants to send me back to the USB U3 drive.

Note that it the folder it is sending me to ([x]:\System\Apps\F9C45380-822A-434b-B70E-5024AE551E68\Data\) is the TC folder on my thumb drive that contains wincmd.ini ...

Maybe this says something to you. It certainly has me puzzled.

[HolgerK]

Ah I see.

Code: Select all

I:\System\Apps\F9C45380-822A-434b-B70E-5024AE551E68\Data\IDMComp

is the same as:

Code: Select all

%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\..\Data\IDMComp\

and

Code: Select all

F9C45380-822A-434b-B70E-5024AE551E68

is TC's GUID!

Seems to be, that UltraEdits environment is inherited from the TC-Process.

UltraEdit tries to load it's own configuration data ("..\Data\IDMComp") relative to %U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%.

Of course, because %U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH% is TC's path in this case, UltraEdit complains(message box) that the configuration data path can't be found, and starts with default options.

Try to set the UltrEdits's option: "minimize UltraEdit on close of last open file".

This should keep the original (started via launch pad) UltraEdit process in memory (and the original environment too).

HTH,
Holger

[TimA]

Very sorry for taking a month to get back. But nothing I have found works yet and I have been too busy to further investigate.
If\when I find something that works I will post back.

[Mikefield]

I looked in this thread regarding a question in the german forum. There was a link to here.
But I'm wondering that all poster hold to the %U3_Host_Exec_Path% and not use the
%U3_Device_Exec_Path% this will start the UE from Stick and not from the Host PC.

mf

[HolgerK]

2Mikefield

The U3-stick does not hold a direct executable of the installed applications.
AFAIK this is common practice for U3 installations.
I don't use UE...

For example:
The TC-U3 installation is placed inside an packed archive (u3p) below %U3_DEVICE_EXEC_PATH%\..\Totalcmd.u3p

Starting TC-U3 via U3-Launchpad means that the U3-Launchpad:
1. copies the executables from "Totalcmd.u3p\host" to %U3_HOST_EXE_PATH% (a subfolder of the users profile on the local hard disk)
2. creates an environment for the executable
3. starts the executable from the host path

The variable part of the TC installation (e.g INI-files, plugins, keyfiles,..) are kept on the U3 stick (%U3_APP_DATA_PATH%).

U3_HOST_EXE_PATH is a unique environment name, initialized with different value for different U3-applications.

4. Closing the launchpad (regular ejecting the U3 stick) cleans %U3_HOST_EXE_PATH% for every U3 application started via launchpad :(normally).

In theory this HD-caching should speed up starting U3 applications, compared to a simple portable flat installation on USB - sticks.

In practice (my personal experience..) the proprietary U3 standard doesn't cooperate smoothly with vista (takes about 8 months, until ScanDisk offers an U3 vista update for my U3-stick. And sometimes this still doesn't work here, leaving the temporarily installed files inside the local profile path).

The actual support/progress is poor:
The latest Firefox available at u3.com is 2.0.0.4!
PortableApps.com offers firefox 3.0.3 for download!

There are rumors that MS wants to push the U3 technology, and will offer a U3 successor in 2H 2008.

Too late for me. Meanwhile I switched to PortableApps
USB-sticks are getting faster, and the U3 (closed software) package -paid via expensive USB sticks- doesn't attract me anymore...

Kind regards,
Holger

[Mikefield]

Hello HolgerK,
thanks for your explanations, but I use U3 over two years and know how it works.
I have downloaded the U3 version of UE and made some investigations. UE for U3
works a little bit different from other U3 Software. OK, the Total Commander
works in the same way:

The executable files are stored in the host directory within the packed u3p file. And
when the Software starts, it kopies the files to the Host PC. Anyway, I got a solution.

It's possible to integrate the UE in the Total Commander for U3. It needs little modifications
but it works:
1st: copy the Host folder within the UE3g.u3p on the U3 device in the directory above,
where the UE Data and the UE Exec folder is locted
2nd: build a little batchfile. The batchfile modifies the enviroment variables and starts the UE.
3rd: Konfiguration -> Viewer / Editor -> "Editor for F4" use the batchfile as the Editor

That's all.


mf