AppImage

[baimafeima]

Could you add an AppImage to the releases here on GitHub? This would allow users to offer feedback to your application who are unable to compile from source.

[kynikos]

Thank you for the suggestion, I like the idea, although it looks like it needs quite a bit of studying :) Until I get there, wiki/Development-environment is meant to guide setting up a testing environment: I can help in case of problems, as long as the output errors are pasted in a bug report, along with some info on the system (mainly distro and version).

[probonopd]

Can you provide a script that would make a self-contained venv on Ubuntu 14.04? From there it would be easy to generate an AppImage. Happy to help.

[kynikos]

Thanks @probonopd, why 14.04? I've downloaded the latest Ubuntu image (17.10) and tested a script there, although perhaps it works also on older releases, but a 2014 one could be too old...
Anyway, the script is at https://github.com/kynikos/outspline/blob/AppImage/dev/mkvenv.sh, I'm looking forward to knowing if it works for you and what you can do with it :)

[probonopd]

Applications can be expected to run on newer, but not on older distributions than the build system. Hence we recommend to build for the oldest still-supported LTS release, which currently is Ubuntu 14.04. So you say I can use that script on Ubuntu 14.04 and it will give me a working venv with outspline?

[kynikos]

Wow you're quick! Hmm... the main problem is wxPython: 14.04 has python-wxgtk2.8, while this application is built on 3.0, which apparently appears only since 16.04. If I remember correctly I had to make some changes when wxPython 3.0 was released, therefore I don't think that this application still runs on 2.8. If you have a 14.04 system ready for testing it's only a matter of launching the script and see where it goes, otherwise I'll download a 14.04 image and try it myself in the next days.

[probonopd]

I'll download a 14.04 image and try it myself in the next days

That would be appreciated. Please ping me when you have it working on 14.04, thanks.

[kynikos]

Hey @probonopd, I've tested the script on 14.04 but as I expected the application doesn't work there, and I can't go back to support wxGTK 2.8, it's too old and would require rewriting too much code, at that point I'd rather spend the time to rewrite the interface with more modern techniques...

On Ubuntu 16.04 the application runs normally, except 1) notifications appear in regular floating windows (with decorations) instead of the standard non-decorated self-destroying windows, and 2) the tray icon doesn't work (perhaps because installing in a virtualenv prevents e.g. from installing icons under /usr/share/icons, but I should investigate).

On 17.10 the application runs fine including the notifications, but the tray icon doesn't appear there either at least when run from the virtualenv.

If you're still interested I can try to fix the notifications on Ubuntu 16.04 and better test the tray icon, but if you need the application working also on 14.04, then I can't support AppImage...

P.S. I've renamed the virtualenv script to https://github.com/kynikos/outspline/blob/AppImage/dev/mkvenv_ubuntu.sh

[probonopd]

If you're still interested I can try to fix the notifications on Ubuntu 16.04 and better test the tray icon, but if you need the application working also on 14.04, then I can't support AppImage...

Of course you can decide which target systems you want to support.
Since an AppImage is just a self-mounting filesystem, you can put inside what you like,

But Ubuntu 14.04 is still a supported (by Canonical) version, so I wonder why any developer would develop against anything newer than the oldest still-supported LTS version if they are interested in maximizing usage of their application...

For being added to the AppImageHub central directory of available AppImages, though, it must pass a test on the oldest still-supported LTS release, which at this time is 14.04.

[kynikos]

Of course you can decide which target systems you want to support.

I see, thanks, then I'll look into those problems, I might be able to target 16.04 after all.

I wonder why any developer would develop against anything newer the oldest still-supported LTS version if they are interested in maximizing usage of their application...

This isn't designed to be a commercial application, I originally made it for myself, and I'm using Arch Linux which is rolling-release, i.e. it always has the latest libraries, so I've kept adapting the application to new versions of wxPython as they were released. I'd be happy to share this app with other people if they find it useful, but I don't have the resources to support too many different environments.

[baimafeima]

Thanks for working on an AppImage @kynikos
I use Solus which is also a rolling release and I don't think Ubuntu will be the benchmark any longer, especially as it is not a specifically desktop-focused operating system anyway. I understand that @probonopd needs a common denominator for listing AppImages on a directory though. I find it a better criteria to test that AppImages build on at least three major independent operating systems such as Debian, Solus and Arch and would avoid Ubuntu alltogether :D