ANNOUNCE: xfce4-appfinder 4.9.0 released

[Harald Judt]

Hi,

Am 21.09.2011 20:54, schrieb Nick Schermer:
[...]
> What is xfce4-appfinder?
> ========================
>
> The Xfce application finder is a program that searches your file system
> for .desktop files, and displays a categorized list of all the GUI
> applications on your system.
>
> Website:
>    http://www.xfce.org
>
>
> Release notes for 4.9.0
> =======================
>
> This is the first development release of the combination of
> xfce4-appfinder and xfrun4.
>
> Please give it some early testing, it might have some rough edges, but
> this is the time to suggest improvements! If you have some, please go to
> bugzilla.xfce.org and report them.


I did some quick tests and found it has some nice ideas and the search 
function and custom commands are really nifty, but it is currently not 
on a par with xfrun4.

A few suggestions and things I noticed (I'm sorry if I mention only 
negative things here, but you asked for improvements):

* Bug: In collapsed mode, enter a command which does not exist => error. 
Now clear the field and enter a correct command and try to launch it => 
Nothing happens.

* It does not allow you to run commands in the easy way xfrun4 does, 
e.g. try entering 'xscreensaver-command -lock' => Command not found.

* It doesn't go together well with some .desktop files, e.g. 
LibreOffice. The problem here is that the 'Exec' entry has parameters, 
e.g. libreoffice --writer, which seems not to be supported by 
xfce4-appfinder.

   - I expected it to show me 'LibreOffice Writer' and 'LibreOffice
     Calc' when I entered 'lowriter' and 'localc'. Unexpectedly, it
     did not, but comes up with 'LibreOffice Writer' and 'LibreOffice
     Calc' when I enter libreoffice. That is because lowriter and
     localc does not exist in any desktop files, only in /usr/bin.

   - Entering 'l' in collapsed mode shows me many entries for completion
     named 'libreoffice'. If I select any one of these from the
     suggestions list, I always get the same icon. Of course, I can't
     launch them either.

   - Related issue: Enter libreoffice in expanded mode, select one of the
     many LibreOffice entries (Writer, Calc,...) => It's always
     'libreoffice' which appears in the entry field, though it starts
     the right application.

* Switching between collapsed mode and expanded mode is possible via 
keyboard up and down keys, but only when the text box is empty. Is there 
a reason why it can't work all the time?

* Auto-completion for commands (not only for history) would be a really 
nice-to-have feature. Please make it use PATH for searching 
applications, too, not only desktop files.

* 'http://www.xfce.org' doesn't work, though there's an entry in custom 
commands?

I hope this helps,

Harald

-- 
`Experience is the best teacher.'