runnable WDSCi from a thumb drive?

Fred Langa of LangaList fame has mentioned several times recently about the
ability to put a bootable operating system on a thumb drive.  Obviously, for
this to work, the BIOS has to have the option to boot the PC from it.

Anyway, along this train of thought, I'm wondering if it's possible to put a
working copy of the components required to run RSE* from a thumb drive
plugged into an XP box that knows nothing of WDSC.

* When I say "RSE", I am interested in the part of WDSCi that enables me to
edit RPG, CL, DDS-type source members, with syntax/"compile" checking.  I am
not doing any "web" stuff at this point.  I just need a way to be able to
"carry" my development environment with me whereever I go, so that, "hey,
does that PC run XP? Kewl, let me just plug in my thumb drive and play
away!"

Perhaps the "easier" way would be to have a bootable copy of XP on the thumb
drive and install WDSCi on it?

Just trying to flesh this out before I jump into a bottomless "time" pit.
If anyone has done this and succeeded or failed, I'd appreciate hearing from
you.

Thanks!
- Dan