Xviewer the image viewer that randomly displays images in folder

[antarctictaco020125]

Gwenview and some others from the Discovery software repositories don't have a random [Ctl] + M (random displaying of images in a folder like a random card deck or flash cards), XVIEWER HOWEVER DOES. xview for the Kubuntu 24.04 + repositories are obsolete but this worked:


https://github.com/linuxmint/xviewer

# install build tools if necessary
sudo apt install build-essential devscripts equivs git meson

# clone this git repository, switch into cloned directory
git clone https://github.com/linuxmint/xviewer.git && cd xviewer

# generate build-dependency package and install it
mk-build-deps -s sudo -i

# build .deb packages
debuild --no-sign

# install packages
sudo debi​

But it requries entering xviewer in the terminal to run it as it's not in the "open with" right click context menu for opening images, nor is the shortcut in the panel.

How do you make shortcut for it? And context menu (right click) option for it?

[kubicle]

Gwenview slideshow has random order option in it's settings (open fullscreen slideshow, and open the settings menu), not sure if that fills your needs, though.

[antarctictaco020125]

Gwenview slideshow has random order option in it's settings (open fullscreen slideshow, and open the settings menu), not sure if that fills your needs, though.

Gwenview slide show has a random feature that automatically switches to another image. There's no manual random card picking like Xview or Irfanview (which is Windows) and I'm not finding any other Linux image viewers that do that. I have no idea why inferior software survives revised versions of Ubuntu while the better software gets left out of the repositories. This method https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php...-ubuntu-20-04/ wasn't working to install xviewer, but the aforementioned instructions here did https://github.com/linuxmint/xviewer and the spitout script for installing that was incredibly long for such superior simple image viewer, making me wonder just how weirdly faulty the tinkering upgrading and altering team for Ubuntu really is.

[claydoh]

"Better" is of course subjective. If this app were truly in demand it would more likely be in Ubuntu (or whichever distro) already. Or, much more likely today, available in flathub and/or the snap store in a distro-agnostic manner.

Some points: the Ubuntu Handbook instructions do clearly state which Ubuntu releases that PPA supports, which do not include any newer than 20.04, so of course it doesn't work in one that is four years newer.

Second, I am assuming you followed the compiling instructions, instead of downloading the binary deb file as mentioned just above them? I will assume that the file called packages.tar.gz on the Releases page is the compressed archive with Debs in it. Mint22 = Ubuntu 24.04

The long way is to compile the code manually for whatever reason, such as for those who want to test or try unreleased code, or there is no package for their distro's packaging system or the version they use. Or because they just want to.


As to other image viewers not having this option for random browsing, either no one cares about it, or ....... possibly no one has requested the app's developer to add one, or none of the random, volunteer coders has had the urge to develop this.

[antarctictaco020125]

"Better" is of course subjective. If this app were truly in demand it would more likely be in Ubuntu (or whichever distro) already. Or, much more likely today, available in flathub and/or the snap store in a distro-agnostic manner.

It's probably not in demand because people would rather install Mint or Debian or go back to Windows and use irfanview https://www.irfanview.com/ which never loses back compatibility on those *.exe files.

[claydoh]

Lol, over a feature that possibly is in very low demand because it well may not be a feature that is commonly used?

Sure, linux application packages not being cross-compatible or backwards compatible is not a plus at all.

But ....flatpak and flatpak don't have this problem, and also have the benefit of not needing to go to multiple places for every app to install.
If Xviewer were popular in any way, someone would have packages it on flathub or the Snap Store, maintained a PPA (which can fairly easily support old and new Ubuntu releases) even if the Mint team might not like these formats. The code is freely available.


Again, ask the qwenview devs, or a different viewer's developer, if it is possible to add this. Get others who want this to join in. You might get it.
Sponsor someone to implement it, or something.

[antarctictaco020125]

Lol, over a feature that possibly is in very low demand because it well may not be a feature that is commonly used?

If random images or questions from set of images is in low demand on a Linux software options, then it's because the practical application of that isn't advertised enough. Random deck of flash cards is 1 of the most elementary basic simple learning methods for memorizing and teaching important information. Crafting digital image viewers with something resembling that should be understood.

[jlittle]

If random images or questions from set of images is in low demand on a Linux software options, then it's because the practical application of that isn't advertised enough. Random deck of flash cards is 1 of the most elementary basic simple learning methods for memorizing and teaching important information.

FWIW, I agree. I've cobbled together this sort of thing several times in the past. I'm my quiz team's flags guy, for example.

[antarctictaco020125]

Thank you
jlittle


Sometimes it pays off to be a petpeeve nagger on forums about free software and It's pretty amazing when software engineers actually take the time to listen to simple solutions to important problems instead of double downing in retaliation compromising principles.

[claydoh]

Sometimes it pays off to be a petpeeve nagger on forums

My point, which it seems I was not very clear on, is that this sort of thing may not be there in an app because no one asked for it, or something like that. Possibly because it is not as popular a use case as one would assume, so no one has done so (I can't locate anything like that, but that does not mean it hasn't been done).

A discussion on a distro forum won't do anything towards that at all. KDE devs, let alone ones who work on Gwenview, will never see this conversation in our tiny corner of the KDE-related universe.



fwiw, one or more image viewer apps that are readily available in most distro package archives (including Ubuntu) and have this feature do exist. Which can be mentioned when one requests it be added to Gwenview

For starting the discussion:
https://discuss.kde.org
(https://discuss.kde.org/search?q=fea...order%3Alatest)

And probably for a formal feature request:
bugs.kde.org if necessary

And I found the one report/request, from 2006:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=132840

Two responses over 15 years.........
But this was all before KDE switched to using Discourse for its forum, which has a lot more engagement and developer interactions than the old forum. Which is also a good way to show interest from users in this -- which I would add my support for.

[antarctictaco020125]

This works on the Kubuntu Wine https://www.irfanview.com/64bit.htm but they never made Linux version.