Jot+ Notes and Wine
While there is no native version of Jot+ Notes for the Linux/Unix or MacOS platform, that does not mean you have to do without your Jot+ Notes!
The WINE project is an open-source platform for running Microsoft Windows applications under Linux and other Unix-type operating systems (including MacOS!).
We recently tested Jot+ Notes 3.4.3 with Wine 0.9.59 under Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (64-bit) - here are a few brief notes:
Installation
First, you need to install/update Wine. You may need/want to configure Wine for your particular environment/preferences, though no changes were needed to run this test.
To install Jot+ Notes under Wine, you need to make the Jot+ Notes setup available to Linux (e.g. copy setup.exe to your home folder). Then you just launch the setup and follow the instruction just as you do under Windows:
Operation
Here is a screenshot of Jot+ Notes on Linux, displaying the sample notefile and the Format Text dialog!
We could load notefiles, edit them, search them, etc. We did encounter the occasional error, probably caused by Jot+ Notes trying to do something that Wine doesn't (currently) implement. Overall, the testing was surprisingly successful!
Known Issues
Because Jot+ Notes is a Windows application, and because Wine does not emulate a Windows environment 100%, there will be glitches and problems. Some will be Wine issues (e.g. Windows API's that are not fully implemented), others may be Jot+ Notes issues. These are a few of the things we are aware of:
- As Wine does not (yet?) support XP/Vista-style theming, applications will use "classic" styling.
- The editor does not implement all of the featured used by Jot+ Notes, such as hyperlinks, embedded images and OLE objects, etc. This is expected to improve over time.
- Jot+ Notes plugins may not work under Wine, especially ones that use advanced RichEdit interfaces. Plugins will load, but affected commands will not enable or do anything.
- Windows and Linux normally have different fonts installed, which will probably cause problems, though you can install your Windows fonts into Wine. See the WineTricks link below for help with this.
- You may receive errors with Print Preview.
- The system tray icon option is not currently usable under Wine, and must not be enabled.
- For the help file to work you may need to allow Wine to download the Gecko HTML engine (as used in Firefox).
- Jot+ Notefiles (.jot files) are not "associated" with Jot+ Notes - you cannot double-click one to launch it in Jot+ Notes.
The above list is almost certainly incomplete.
It is worth mentioning that Wine is maturing and improving at a very rapid pace, and many of the issues listed here may well be resolved in later Wine releases. Future releases of Jot+ Notes may include changes/fixes to make it more Wine-compatible.
More Information
Please note that King Stairs Software will not provide support for running Jot+ Notes under Wine. Your use of Jot+ Notes under Wine is entirely at your own risk.
User updates, tips, and reports of problems will be appreciated.
Some useful Wine-related links:
- Wine FAQ
- WineTricks - to install useful components (e.g. fonts).
- Wine under Mac OS X
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