AppImage Installer now using xdotool

Yesterday I posted about using xdotool to find .AppImage file and version in a github repo:

https://bkhome.org/news/202303/strategy-to-find-the-latest-appimage-file.html

That has now been implemented, see commit:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/3af5ee446988047d9c5efa740f7bb5e56e61e2db

Also, there was a bug. ROX-Filer is supposed to have appropriate mime-handling for each AppImage. Fixed, now correctly extracts MimeType field from the .desktop file inside the .AppImage file.

Added a new game, CroMagRally, and a paint program that is very good with graphics tablets, MyPaint.

Thinking about what to do next with the Installer, I am concerned that it downloads and installs the latest AppImage from github. From my limited experience with AppImages, it would seem that a release may work now, but a later release may not.

This potential problem is due, I think, to a lack in strictness of the rules required for constructing AppImages. A developer may release one, then later on update or change his host system, then when build the next release, it will be broken on EasyOS. This can very easily happen, and is a reason why I am not entirely happy with using AppImages.

So, I am thinking of changing the Installer so that it downloads an AppImage release known to work, not necessarily the latest. Later on, the user can update to the latest, and if it doesn't work, can roll back.

Note, as a precaution, I have been archiving them, so if one disappears, we still have it:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/packages/appimage/easyos/oe/kirkstone/

Changing the subject, Dmitry (maybe in the forum) has contributed Russian (ru) translations for EasyOS, see commit:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/8e8407afb4ebef53a7c51901980cb9a2115e41a5

Taking a leaf from Dima's book, all top-level folders at /home now have 700 permissions. I posted about Dima's work on enhancing security for Puppy:

https://bkhome.org/news/202303/apps-running-as-spot-extra-secure-in-puppy.html

EDIT 2023-03-31:
Method replaced by parsing json file, see post:

https://bkhome.org/news/202303/appimage-installer-now-parsing-json-file.html       

Tags: easy