HI all, I used some time today to prototype this in GNUstep make, and successfully built a portable image of EasyDiff:
https://github.com/gnustep/tools-make/pull/70 I think lots of caveats (documented in the PR description), but it basically works. It would be nice to have CI that builds non-flattened AppImages that work on multiple architectures, for example. Best wishes, Graham. > On 25 May 2026, at 12:37, [email protected] via Discussion > list for the GNUstep programming environment <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, > >> Am 25.05.2026 um 10:41 schrieb Riccardo Mottola <[email protected]>: >> >> Hi, >> >> [email protected] via Discussion list for the GNUstep >> programming environment wrote: >>> I think, GNUstep needs lower hurdles for entering our ecosystem and so I >>> had the thought „What if we distribute the GNUstep dev tools as AppImage?“, >>> e.g. bundling everything needed (basic GNUstep installation; compiler, >>> linker, make; Gorm.app and ProjectCenter.app; some example code) into an >>> AppImage like PikoPixel did, so that our App can be run everywhere >>> AppImages are supported. >>> >>> What do you think about the idea, would it help our cause? >>> >>> What would be the prerequisites for such an attempt? >>> >>> How much work would it be? >>> >> >> I don't know about AppImages but GNUstep supports packing everything into a >> single directory containing Application, frameworks, themes, preferences >> into a single folder. >> >> It is useful to ship a single application with its environment, I use it >> with success on windows and have scripts for that. Very convenient. >> Theoretically it can also contain more than one app. >> >> It is instead not very smart having several directories for each app, since >> that way you have multiple runtime installations and running them in >> concurrency may cause issues (beyond space waste). I don't know how >> AppImages would handle this. > > I mentioned AppImages because those are a recognized way to distribute apps > für Linux (and BSD? I don’t know). Yeah, they somewhat reinvented the wheel > after OpenSteps app bundle, but they still seem to be the way commonly used. > Please correct me if I am wrong. > > Despite all this I am off course open to other but similar easy ways to > distribute (binary) apps to users. > >> >> -R > > kind regards, > > Lars
