Distribute R-core package with a launcher and appdata

[Bastián Díaz]

Hello everyone, my proposal is this:

-Include a desktop launcher *.desktop for R (terminal=true)
-Include information about application (aka appdata)

In gnome-software working to promote appdata, but unfortunately only 
consider applications with GUI and for good reason, but I think you can 
give some exceptions like R. For example, Octave before its version 4.0 
and official GUI, was distributed with desktop launcher and now has 
appdata, making it easy to install with gnome-software.

R, it is a project with great reputation and widely used in research and 
academia.

The benefits:
-Very visible (easy to find and install/remove)
-Easy to launch through the application view (gnome-shell)
-Quick access to the project website
-Rating and other benefits of gnome-software (running out-of-the-box, 
usage statistics?, etc.)

Additional info:
R now have a nice flat logo -> https://www.r-project.org/Rlogo.png

Cheers

-- 
Bastián Díaz

[Richard Hughes]

On 12 September 2015 at 05:09, Bastián Díaz
<diaz.bastian(a)openmailbox.org&gt; wrote:
>  -Include a desktop launcher *.desktop for R (terminal=true) 
I don't think the software center shows apps with terminal=true at the moment...

>  In gnome-software working to promote appdata, but unfortunately only
>  consider applications with GUI and for good reason, but I think you can give
>  some exceptions like R. For example, Octave before its version 4.0 and
>  official GUI, was distributed with desktop launcher and now has appdata,
>  making it easy to install with gnome-software. 
At the moment it's policy not to show terminal applications, otherwise
we open the floodgates for "applications" like mutt, vi, powertop,
etc. I'm not saying those projects are not awesome, but the software
center story that we've got doesn't cope with them very well. I think
the best thing to do is talk to the designers and find a good way to
indicate these applications are terminal applications, and get some
guidance on how to decide what to include and what to exclude.

Richard.

[Bastián Díaz]

El 15-09-2015 11:29, Richard Hughes escribió:
>  On 12 September 2015 at 05:09, Bastián Díaz
>  <diaz.bastian(a)openmailbox.org&gt; wrote:
> > -Include a desktop launcher *.desktop for R (terminal=true)
>  
>  I don't think the software center shows apps with terminal=true at the 
>  moment... 
I could understand, but there are some applications of high popularity 
that would benefit the change.

>  
> > In gnome-software working to promote appdata, but unfortunately only
> > consider applications with GUI and for good reason, but I think you 
> > can give
> > some exceptions like R. For example, Octave before its version 4.0 and
> > official GUI, was distributed with desktop launcher and now has 
> > appdata,
> > making it easy to install with gnome-software.
>  
>  At the moment it's policy not to show terminal applications, otherwise
>  we open the floodgates for "applications" like mutt, vi, powertop,
>  etc. 
These applications are commonly used by system administrators or used in 
servers. The last two have a GUI.


  I'm not saying those projects are not awesome, but the software
>  center story that we've got doesn't cope with them very well.
> I think
>  the best thing to do is talk to the designers and find a good way to
>  indicate these applications are terminal applications, and get some
>  guidance on how to decide what to include and what to exclude.
>   
I do not think that all applications for terminal appears on 
gnome-software. It is best to pick a handful of them, so I proposed 
individually to R.
I can not find a mailing list for gnome design, so I'll create a new 
report for improvement.

Cheers

-- 
Bastián Díaz