fuss-launcher: an application launcher built on apt-xapian-index

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Long ago I blogged about using apt-xapian-index to write an application launcher.

Now I just added a couple of new apt-xapian-index plugins that look like they have been made just for that.

In fact, they have indeed been made just for that.

After my blog post in 2008, people from Truelite and the FUSS project took up the challenge and wrote a launcher applet around my example engine.

The prototype has been quite successful in FUSS, and as a consequence I've been asked (and paid) to bring in some improvements.

The result, that I have just uploaded to NEW, is a package called fuss-launcher:

* New upstream release
   - Use newer apt-xapian-index: removed need of local index
   - Dragging a file in the launcher shows the applications that can open it
   - Remembers the applications launched more frequently
   - Allow to set a list of favourite applications

To get it:

apt-get install fuss-launcher (after it passed NEW);
or git clone http://git.fuss.bz.it/git/launcher.git/ and apt-get install python-gtk2 python-xapian python-xdg apt-xapian-index app-install-data

It requires apt-xapian-index >= 0.35.

To try it:

Make sure your index is up to date, especially if you just installed app-install-data: just run update-apt-xapian-index as root.
Run fuss-launcher.
Click on the new tray icon to open the launcher dialog.
Type some keywords and see the list of matching applications come to life as you type.

It's worth mentioning again that all this work was sponsored by Truelite and the Fuss project, which rocks.

Some screenshots:

When you open the launcher, by default it shows the most frequently started applicationss and the favourite applications:

When you type some keywords, you get results as you type, and context-sensitive completion:

When you drag a file on the launcher you only see the applications that can open that file: