Linux installation

[Bob Warren]

Richard Gaskin wrote:

I'd like to make an installer for Linux versions of my app which handles
the basics:

- Puts the application in its own folder
- Puts a shortcut to the app in the Start menu
- Assigns appropriate file types to the app
- Assigns icons for the app and its documents

When I went fishing for this info a couple years ago, it seemed each
desktop manager had their own way of doing these things, with little if
any consistency between them.

What's involved in making one installer file that works with most common
Linux distros today?

This installer will be made with Rev, so as much as I appreciate any
tips about third-party installers it's essential to my workflow that I
roll my own (I have an end-to-end automated build system).

TIA -
-------------------------------------------------------------
Richard:

I'm not an expert on the subject (or any other for that matter), so 
please take anything I say with a pinch of salt.

The question of program installation is really the weakest part of Linux 
as it stands at the moment. Nor do I see the solution to this in the 
very near future, on account of the different meanings of "installation" 
  and the different characteristics of the Linuxes out there. At 
present, what you are asking for is still a dream, at least in my 
limited experience.

The easiest "solution" (which is not a solution really and certainly 
does not attend any of the items you have listed above) is to put the 
whole lot into a ZIP (or similarly compressed) file and to get the user 
to download it directly to the desktop. Presumably, the user knows where 
his desktop is, because if you ask this question in Transcript (sorry, 
"Revolution") you won't get any kind of answer: as you know, the 
function specialFolderPath for obtaining such system information, that 
works on both Mac and Windows, has not been implemented in Rev for Linux.

In a better world, you should be able to put your excellent question to 
the Rev engineers. Since I'm a naughty boy, I've CC'd this reply to Mark W.

Regards,
Bob