elbey

A basic desktop app launcher implemented in Rust on the iced UI framework for Linux. This project is intentionally simple and "low abstraction" to aid in discovery and experimentation (also known as "fun"). Upon launch, the program lists all of the locally installed desktop apps with a filter widget set above. To launch, hit enter on the selected item, or use the mouse.

Status

The application is functional in that desktop apps can be launched from the dialog. There is no caching, modes, persistent memory, custom theming, or other fancy features. But, you can add them yourself if you want!

Feature Ideas

Things that might be fun to add to ebley:

• Sort the entries by usage or name
• Use layer shell so window always on top of existing windows
• Implement page up and page down
• Add caching to speed up retrieval of the apps
• Show app icons in addition to the titles
• Allow theme to be selected from the command line
• Allow for custom themes
• Generalize the utility to allow for any list to be used

Tests

There are a few unit tests that exercise some basic functions.

Documentation

The rustdoc is available here: https://kgilmer.github.io/elbey

Get it

Elbey is only distributed via source here.

Build

cargo build --release

Launch/Test

./target/release/elbey

Install

cargo install --path .
which elbey # where cargo installed the binary

Credit

This program was inspired by the friendly docs of iced itself, other desktop app launchers such as pop-launcher and onagre, gauntlet, iced_launcher, and the greater Rust desktop cohort. Of course the venerable rofi must also be mentioned.

Project logo was created by Mira Gilmer.