All these packages resp. utilities do not require Windows admin rights for getting them “installed” – actually they do not need “a Windows system installation”.
Below C:\Users\jhayek I created a couple of subdirectories:
- opt: every package resp. utility has its own subdirectory below there
- bin: some .bat and .sh (BusyBox ash) scripts go there
Packages resp. utilities:
- GNU Emacs
- busybox-w32: includes a shell and a lot of Unix utilities
- Strawberry Perl
- https://ConEmu.github.io — a Windows console alternative, where you can paste text w/o using the mouse 😎
- xmlstarlet
After having worked with this set-up for a couple of days, I have to admit: this is not just a minimalist Unix-ish working environment, but it is rather enjoyable working environment. I do not have the GNU utilities with all their advantages (nice long command line options and lots of features) – but for most purposes the utilities built into busybox-w32 are good enough for my purposes. What a great idea it was to think of “busybox for Windows” a couple of days ago – and actually find “busybox-w32”!!! I had to consider a lightweight alternative of Cygwin, because on my new client’s Windows computers it’s not available.
ConEmu makes busybox-w32 and its shell (the “ash”) even more enjoyable.
GNU Emacs is as good as always – I can’t really describe how sad it is to not have it available in a serious working environment.
Strawberry Perl so far has all the modules, that my utilities need. I am really glad to have that “distribution”.
xmlstarlet is my XPath and XML Swiss Army Knife.
With all these utilities and packages available it’s even quite fun to work on Windows 7 😆