[L2Ork-dev] Packaging Purr Data as a Flatpak for Linux

[Sam Thursfield]

Hi all,

There are a few 'app stores' recently developed for Linux. As a Fedora
user, I'd like to see Pure Data packaged as a Flatpak[1] so I can
download it from the Flathub app store.[2]

Building Purr Data as a Flatpak bundle is pretty straightforward,
I have some build instructions working already, with a few caveats[3].
I'm almost ready to submit this to the Flathub app store.  However, I
wanted to check in here first that it's OK to do that, and also I want
to hear your opinions on 'branding'. Let me explain ...

An app on Flathub needs a unique identifier in reverse-DNS
format. I've used `info.puredata.PurrData` for this. An app also needs
a human-readable name and an icon. I've used "Pure Data" as the name,
and the icon from <https://github.com/pure-data/pd-icon>. In the
description of the app I put a note that this is actually the Purr Data
fork of PD. I think this approach will make it easy for users to find,
and if someone wants to put a different fork of PD onto Flathub in the
future we can figure out how to distinguish the two. (I feel like Purr
Data must be the best option for desktop users, but maybe some people
really like Tcl/TK :-).

I'm just getting into Pd so maybe I'm missing something important. If
so I'd appreciate help to find an approach that everyone is happy with!

Thanks
Sam Thursfield


[1]. https://flatpak.org/
[2]. https://flathub.org/
[3]. The build instructions are here:
<https://github.com/ssssam/flatpak-info.puredata.PurrData>. The main
caveat is that support for pro audio apps in Flatpak is still limited,
so currently we have to use the OSS rather than the JACK audio backend,
and I'm not sure about MIDI support. I also left a few harder-to-build
extensions out of the package, and disabled Gem for now.
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