- Introducing klik
- Installing the klik Client
- Limitations
- Wrapping Up
Limitations
klik might be leading the way to a kind of application Nirvana, but getting there isn’t without its challenges. There are limitations, and not everything works perfectly. After all, this stuff is still in the (somewhat) early stages. That said, you’ll find that easily 80 percent or more of the packages you klik work perfectly.
When you are ready to download a package, you are invited to post your feedback about the success (or lack of success) in running that particular klik. Consequently, it makes sense to check the comments left by other users who have tried to use the package in question. This feedback mechanism not only helps you in selecting packages with a high rate of success but also helps the recipe maintainers in making sure their packages work as well as possible.
Another limitation has to do with command-line packages. By default, an application runs, does its job, and then exits. With graphical software, this usually means that it waits for some kind of user interaction, whatever that may be, followed by a requested exit at some point. Command-line programs generally require that you pass some parameters or that you run them from the command line. That’s okay because you can run klik packages from the shell. Here’s how.
Remember my installation of TuxPaint? To run a .cmg file outside of the klik process, use the .zAppRun command. You’ll find a copy of it in your home directory (it was installed along with klik). Open a command shell (Konsole, if you are running KDE) and type the following:
~/.zAppRun ~/Desktop/tuxpaint_0.9.14-2.cmg
The tilde (~) represents a quick path to your home directory. I could have also written the command like this.
/home/marcel/.zAppRun /home/marcel/Desktop/tuxpaint_0.9.14-2.cmg
In the case of a command-line program where you have to pass several arguments, you can do the following.
~/.zAppRun /path_to/command_name.cmg -switches arg1 arg2