App-select feature request

[RobinMember]

Hi @Dave

I’d like to suggest a new feature added to App-Select. It’s about the readout of the “Keywords=” entries present in many upstream desktop files by default and literally in all translated .desktop files in the antix23-desktop-files set, so this would be clearly worth the effort. By now you can’t search for these in App-Select, so all the translated Keywords are without any function in antiX currently. The syntax follows precisely the “Categories=” lines, entries are separated by a semicolon, and the line must be closed with a semicolon. So I believe you could recycle/reuse simply the routines which handle the categories already; hence this feature upgrade should be pretty easy to implement, if I’m not mistaken.

Arbitrary example taken from one of the files:

Keywords=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[sq]=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Asistancë;e fshehtëzuar;ndihmë;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[ca]=Compartit;Escriptori;VNC;Assistència;encriptat;ajuda;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[fr]=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;partage;bureau;crypté;aide;virtuel;
Keywords[fr_BE]=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;partage;bureau;crypté;aide;virtuel;
Keywords[de]=Netzwerk;Freigabe;Hilfe;Virtuell;Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[hu]=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;megosztás;képernyőmegosztás;távsegítség;távoli segítség;bejelentkezés;
Keywords[pt]=Partlhar;ambiente de trabalho;Desktop;VNC;Assistência;encriptadr;ajuda;ajuda remota;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[pt_BR]=compartilhar;compartilhado;compartilhamento;área de trabalho;VNC;assistência remota;criptografia;criptografado;encriptar;encriptação;ajuda;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[ru]=Общий;Рабочий стол;Помощь;зашифрованный;виртуальный;Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[ru_RU]=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;Оощий;рабочий стол;помощь;зашифрованный;справка;виртуальный;
Keywords[sl]=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;deljeno;namizje;VNC;pripomoček;pomoč;SSL;navidezno;
Keywords[es]=Compartido;Escritorio;VNC;Asistencia;cifra;ayuda;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[es_ES]=Compartido;Escritorio;VNC;Asistencia;cifra;ayuda;SSL;virtual;
Keywords[sv]=Delad;Skrivbord;VNC;Hjälp;krypterad;hjälp;SSL;virtuell;

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[ileMember]

Hello Robin
1 to 1 assistance. how did i do?

app-select names it Description. Desktop Entry Comment.
Inside the box
Your talent can shift the searchstring words to Comment[]=
accomplish the publication, declaration of searchstring
toward your goal of sensible, reliable results from text input.

[DaveForum Admin]

Should be updated.
It may also contain some changes that were requested before for remembering column switch state and modes.
I think this was a request to interact with the –desktop option
https://gitlab.com/antiX-Dave/app-select-antix/-/blob/master/app-select?ref_type=heads

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[PPCMember]

@Dave – sorry, I’m a little late to this thread… something I though should be changed: app-select still displays a warning when it can’t find an icon. I think that is just confusing to most users… A warning in the terminal window would suffice, when debugging what’s wrong. Currently, the user has to close the pop window that displays the error, then app-select works as expected…

P.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.

[DaveForum Admin]

@PPC. Altered print / error messaging to print these errors to the terminal/standard out, not graphically.

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[ileMember]

Hello everyone
I see keywords.
app-select 2.2, Change check for number…

[ileMember]

Hello
2.3
searchstring KEY Values need to terminate with a space;
cause within app-select
for purpose of app-select searchbox text input match.

entries from all Desktop Entry KEYs
Name, generic,comment, keywords
the searchstring word entries from .desktop
app-select needs to add a space at the end to finish the searchstring word.

Trial it with the first one. about xfce.

about xfce[space] the result disappears.
you have that about xfce? maybe not. try the word grub. try dsp. keyboard layout. run program…[space]
galculator[space] the result disappears.
It does not always happen with Name followed by generic. search name only and without generic listed after it the name has no space at the end and a direct result disappears. Keywords being last happens always. type a space at the end of a direct hit erases the direct result.

[anticapitalXMember]

Hello everyone,

First, I’d like to thank @Robin for the excellent keyword search feature suggestion, and appreciate the contributions from @PPC and @ile for their valuable feedback and testing. Special thanks to @Dave for implementing these improvements so quickly, particularly the fix for removing graphical warning popups – this makes the user experience much smoother.

Building on this discussion, I have a suggestion that could further enhance app-select’s usability: implementing a system tray functionality.

My proposed tray behavior would be similar to how onboard operates:

• Clicking the tray icon shows the app-select window
• Clicking the tray icon again hides the app-select window
• When app-select is launched while a previous instance is already running (either visible or hidden in tray), no new instance should be created. Instead, if the previous instance is hidden in the tray, it should be brought back to visibility
• Only one instance of app-select should be allowed to run at any time

This approach would provide several benefits:

• Quick access to app-select without cluttering the desktop
• Faster startup times when toggling visibility (no need to reload)
• Better resource management by preventing multiple instances
• More seamless integration with the desktop workflow
• Re-launching the application will simply show the existing hidden instance rather than creating duplicates

Thanks again for all the great work on this project!

^{Let's accept antiX as it is
Pure and Elegant by its nature}

[PPCMember]

app-select --desktop

…does most of that. But nice idea, just allowing one instance and using the already running one (uses a bit of RAM to keep app-select loaded, but is very, very useful on very slow computers)

P.

[ileMember]

Hello Robin and Dave and PPC and
hello anticapitalX
app-select -d
is Above
app-select
Two.
Separate, several, configuration. last-state, etc.
Concurrent active state.
app-select -d set with Display Columns is terrific. full screen. informative.
app-select can be not display columns.

Found another one runs in tray: /usr/local/bin/search-bar-icon
Have FeatherNotes in tray is option. kdocker can tray everything.
icewm and jwm toolbar have a send to tray feature. It is for fluxbox that tray icons are appreciated. And app-select –desktop on every antiX toolbar!

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by ile.

[ileMember]

Hello Everyone
for searchbox input matching

a searchstring with a space at the end
can be a direct hit result.
is possible.
Did discover some ways to script a space at the end of entries
does allow space at the end of input will show result.
the keywords that you are looking for end with a comma.
the current keywords are not space terminated they have a comma space after the keyword
except for the last keyword in the string.
This demonstrates that matching entries with space at end is more accurate than match with comma at end. Script change comma to space, or to space comma, everywhere search words possibly end comma.
space in place of comma will produce result for search words terminated with space.
end string with space. middle of string insert space at end of word, (before comma if there is comma,) where there is not a space at end of word.

Keywords: looks good without commas.
What about , Name , and Desc , and generic ? space comma , (?)

[RobinMember]

Hi Ile, even when (as a non native English speaker) I hardly can understand any of your postings due to the way and style you write in English language, impossible for me to interpret, I reckon I have understood at least, that you suggest to modify the way the program catches for blanks and commas on keywords lines.

ile wrote:

the current keywords are not space terminated they have a comma space after the keyword
except for the last keyword in the string.
This demonstrates that matching entries with space at end is more accurate than match with comma at end. Script change comma to space, or to space comma, everywhere search words possibly end comma.

This is simply impossible, since keywords itself allow comma inside them. Single valid separator in keywords lines is semicolon. There are some few programs (or translators) violating this, translating e.g.

Keywords=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;

to one of the following:

Keywords[lang]=Shared; Desktop; VNC; Assistance; encrypted; help; SSL; virtual
Keywords[lang]=Shared; Desktop; VNC; Assistance; encrypted; help; SSL; virtual;
Keywords[lang]=Shared, Desktop, VNC, Assistance, encrypted, help, SSL, virtual
Keywords[lang]=Shared,Desktop,VNC,Assistance,encrypted,help,SSL,virtual
Keywords[lang]=Shared,Desktop,VNC,Assistance,encrypted,help,SSL,virtual,
Keywords[lang]=Shared,Desktop,VNC,Assistance,encrypted,help,SSL,virtual;
Keywords[lang]=Shared; Desktop; VNC; Assistance; encrypted; help; SSL; virtual,
Keywords[lang]=Shared Desktop VNC Assistance encrypted help SSL virtual
Keywords[lang]=Shared Desktop VNC Assistance encrypted help SSL virtual;

(wrong syntax, all of them)

This must be fixed in the .desktop file of the very program, and can not be cured by any other program reading the files, because the following is valid keyword syntax:

Keywords=Shared;Desktop;VNC;Assistance;encrypted;help;SSL;virtual;Keyword, with comma and blank;

MUST match if somebody searches for “Keyword, with comma and blank”.

No way to bend the search algorithm for all files now to interpret this as

“Keyword;with;comma;and;blank;”

just to cure some errors in a few desktop files.

Btw, in antiX23-desktop-files update, currently translated at transifex, all these errors in .desktop files keywords lines (and all the other errors found in them) should have been fixed before uploading the resource already, at least in the original untranslated strings. Plus the harvester script runs tests, to make at least sure that the line properly ends with a semicolon, while no script or program ever can know whether a comma or blank inside a keywords line is actually intentional and valid, or just there because a translator has goofed to use the proper separator syntax, so these must always be interpreted as intentional. The dev notes at transifex clearly state how to translate these lines properly. Unfortunately there is no means to have the line being checked and producing immediately a warning for the translator while saving a translated line not following the standards; this is not in the “plan” Transifex has granted to antiX, you’d need to extra pay for this feature. So people will have to check this manually in the resulting .desktop files later, and fix it then at transifex (or a couple of people can manually check all the keywords entries at transifex in antix-23-desktop-files prophylactically and fix whatever you see being wrong there before next harvesting run will come. This is nothing a single person can do, because of some ten thousands of keywords lines need to be inspected, 517 lines for each language currently, which sums up to around ~50.000 to 60.000 lines if all supported languages are translated.)

@Dave:
Latest Version: 2.3 from your above link works perfectly fine here, tested on antiX 23 full runit 64 bit. Search limited to Keyword search from pulldown comes up with precisely the expected results, differentiating properly between “…;computer name;…”, “…;computer, name;…” and “…;computer;name;…”. Great work, and literally at lightspeed implemented. Wouldn’t have expected to see this that soon! Many thanks, Dave!

Hint to translators of antix23-desktop-files: It’s always a good idea to have included the original keywords line, or at least some English terms recognised in your country as alien words (aka in German: “Denglish”, “Anglicism” (in the meaning of words transplanted from US Eglish and British English both to German: e.g. Computer instead of Rechner; Scanner (no German equivalent)), or “Pseudo-anglicism” (for words which are not understood in English, but used in German nevertheless as “English”: e.g. „Bad-Design” not in the meaning of actually bad design, but for wet-unit-design or bathroom-design; “Oldtimer” for classic car; “Handy” for mobile phone; and so on, which sound ridiculous altogether if you know the English language), to your translation, so they will still show up when people search for them instead of for the proper terms in their language. This is not mandatory, and translators should always decide based on what they know about the linguistic culture of their country.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[ileMember]

Hello Robin
Type comma into the app-select searchbox to see commas.
searchbox does not match against .desktop file.
searchbox matches against what is seen printed in app-select.
app-select creates that text from .desktop files.
image shows on left is app-select current.new and on right is app-select manipulated to have a space ending each word.
on the right all words end with space. The other is app-select 2.3

On the right does not cover every instance of a word ending in punctuation, special character extending the string. (it could(?)) It covers the comma and generic paren and last string Value words end with space. It puts a space at the beginning of a categories name; after the semi-colon. The semi-colon ending the categories name distinguishes it as a category. It puts a space after the colon in Mime Types: ..

Attachments:

1. 

   143.png
   

[DaveForum Admin]

@ile.
I have modified app-select to display a space before and after the ‘,’.
However I am not certain this is what you are actually asking for (it can be applied elsewhere). I think maybe you are more looking for the ability to do a multiple string search. I am not sure how to do this at this moment.

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[ileMember]

Hello Dave
I was convinced that the author could pick the better methods to bound the words with spaces. You did. I never thought of the way you set it.
The extra space after name proves there is two changes in mine doing the same thing. sloppy. but it connects the input output format for my trial. the space manipulation is clumsy at around line 302. and find odd spaces fit in at the end of strings to change blank to space. and inserted at line 330. and after the colon in Mime Types: ..

Attachments:

1. appselectD921.zip

[Author]

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