A framework based on Termux & Termux:X11, to port GUI apps from Linux to Android

[mister-teddy]

Just like how Electron wrapped Node.js and Chromium into each application which was built on it, could we just wrap Termux + Termux:X11 into every application which was built on this new framework?

It would be nice to have useful applications such as Visual Studio Code and Chromium as standalone applications, with their own icon on the app drawer or the home screen, one-touch install, one-touch launch, automatically resizable (if applicable), without knowing how they work under the hood. It would be a fun framework to maintain, but I want to make sure it is possible before putting all my effort into it. As a Termux/Android/Linux developer, how feasible is it do you think? And as an application user, how helpful would you think this framework will be? Thank you 🙏

[TomJo2000]

VSCode and Chromium are available in the TUR.

• https://github.com/termux-user-repository/tur/tree/master/tur/chromium
• https://github.com/termux-user-repository/tur/tree/master/tur/code-oss

You can make launcher icons for them using Termux:Widget as per usual.

[twaik]

Are you talking about something like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ula.gimp&hl=en ? The app which has only Gimp (with all dependencies), some WM only for one application and its windows and XServer XSDL packed into one application?

[twaik]

They used some distro in proot environment and XServer XSDL. Not termux and termux-x11.

[mister-teddy]

Thank you for the information @twaik! Good to know that it is somewhat feasible.

[agnostic-apollo]

Node.js and Chromium being bundled into a single application makes sense because that's all that's required to run sites and dependencies are downloaded at runtime via the web.

Visual Studio is a completely different thing as its a development environment, and not an end product like electron apps. It also supports many languages and they each would have their own packages and then additional dependencies, depending on what is intended to be run, so you each such variant would require separate apps. Execution of dependencies downloaded at runtime would obviously be an issue, unless using linker hack if deploying on playstore or packing every required executable as native library.

https://github.com/agnostic-apollo/Android-Docs/blob/master/site/pages/en/projects/docs/apps/processes/app-data-file-execute-restrictions.md

Mobile devices often don't have enough space either for such duplications like desktops allow with electron, i.e each app would have duplicates of each Termux package. Since Termux is a rolling release model, might be better to just build framework inside Termux itself.

X11 apps in Termux would obviously have performance and usability issues as well, compared to native apps.

What you ask should theoretically be possible, whether its feasible is for you to decide yourself. There are already some apps on playstore that ship minimal termux packages for development with IDE support.

[mister-teddy]

Insightful, thank you!

[agnostic-apollo]

Welcome