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I just installed Expresso via Wine Windows Program Loader. The installation seemed to be fine.

But when I click the program item from Applications -> Wine -> Programs -> Expresso -> Expresso, the cursor rotated a few seconds and then nothing happened.

Later I checked back on the Expresso website, where there is a paragraph describing the installation process:

You may be prompted to install the .NET Framework. If you are not taken there automatically, download and install the 2.0 or later version of the framework from the Microsoft web site. Restart the Expresso install file after installing the framework.

I was wondering if I have installed Expresso successfully? If not, how shall I do? Do I have to install .NET Framework, and how to?

I also would like to know if it worth to install .NET Framework? My intention to install Expresso is just to have a nice editor for using Regex.

Thanks and regards！

PS: My Wine version is 1.2.2-0ubuntu2~maverick2, and my OS is Ubuntu 10.10.

Thomas Ward
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Tim
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  • NOTE: I've installed this with wine and mono-runtime active, and after installing the .NET 2.0 framework using Winetricks, there is ONE glitch with the program: the menu bar (with menus such as File, Edit, etc) does not run correctly on my system (NOTE: Mono is DEFNINTELY NEEDED to run this correctly, even under Wine.) There's another regexp thing referenced in this question if you want something that can run without Wine (and works EXCEPTIONALLY well on Linux): http://askubuntu.com/questions/31260/recommendation-for-regex-editor – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:01
  • @EvilPhoenix: Thanks! (1) By glitch, do you mean the problem has correct itself now? (2) Have you installed both Expresso and RegExr? How is Expresso compared with RegExr? – Tim Mar 21 '11 at 05:07
  • @Tim: RegExr is pretty nice, fits my needs perfectly. Required me to install the adobeair package to make it run, but after installing, i was able to install RegExr and it works perfectly for my needs. If you can give me say another 15 minutes to test out Expresso, I can give you my comparison in a second comment here. – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:09
  • @Tim: having an error matching the regex patterns with Expresso running under Mono, possibly because the program is so reliant on the .NET framework to function.

    Here's two screenshots comparing exactly the same regex patterns. Note that Expresso dissects the regex pattern and explains it a tiny bit, where as RegExr does not (however, RegExr has active validation and active matching, so that as you edit the regexp, it will actually change through sample text to show you what it matches upon. Screenie 1: http://koloth.trekweb.org/Expresso.png Screenie 2: http://koloth.trekweb.org/RegExr.png

     – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:18
  • (continuation of previous comment) @Tim: Lemme make a note though. I was UNABLE to get Expresso to validate or successfully test the regexp I provided to it, however RegExr succeeded in both validating the regex pattern, as well as identifying the specific patterns it matched on (and shows you the results in the sample text, as well as shows you the specific part of the regex pattern provided that picked up each part of the highlighted [aka "matched"] sample text when you hover over it with the mouse cursor. I think you should use RegExr because it doesnt have the errors Expresso does. – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:21
  • @Tim: And by glitch, I mean a persistent error where the menu bar doesnt display correctly, although the dropdown menus from the menu bar still show (but you have absolutely no clue what the menus are nor where they specifically are located. – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:22
  • @EvilPhoenix: Thanks for the detailed input! Really appreciate that. I will reconsider whether to install Expresso. – Tim Mar 21 '11 at 05:26
  • @Tim: no problem. I just hope the moderators don't throw me into the pit of oblivion for taking 4 comments to answer your initial response to my first comment :P – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:27

2 Answers2

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If Expresso is just a .Net application, you'd probably have more success running it with Mono Install mono-runtime.

You can install it with:

sudo apt-get install mono-runtime

Then browse to the application's main executable and run:

mono app.exe

...where app.exe is the executable for the application.

Elder Geek
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Nathan Osman
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  • Thanks! I was wondering if I have to install app under mono first? – Tim Mar 21 '11 at 00:39
  • @Tim: Probably not. You'll likely need Wine to install the application. – Nathan Osman Mar 21 '11 at 00:40
  • Thanks! Suppose I have no no Wine and just Mono, do I have to install app under Mono before I can run app? Or Mono is depending on Wine and I have to install Wine in order to install app? – Tim Mar 21 '11 at 01:39
  • @Tim: First of all, Wine and Mono are completely separate (for all practical purposes). You'll probably need Wine to install the app and Mono to run it. – Nathan Osman Mar 21 '11 at 02:50
  • FYI: I tried this on 10.04, and you will need Wine to install the .NET framework, and Mono alongside it in order to make the program work correctly, save for the issue I stated in my comment to the question itself rather than this answer. – Thomas Ward Mar 21 '11 at 05:02
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You could also install the windows version of .NET runtime under Wine. This way, Mono is not required, and everything would run under Wine.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa569263

This links to .NET framework v4. Maybe this is overkill, and v3 (or even 2) would be enough for Expresso (and most applications)

MestreLion
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