[feature] single line Linux terminal install.

[JaredTweed]

Can we get a single line to install this? On Windows there is winget install Microsoft.Edit, but on Linux can we get a single small and easy curl?

[lhecker]

There are 3 issues with this, all related to our use of ICU for text search:

• Linux distributions unfortunately generally use ICU's "renaming" feature, and so all symbols have a version suffix like u_errorName_76
• Many don't offer a standardized, unversioned binary name, such as libicuuc.so, e.g. Ubuntu only offers libicuuc.so.76 and we can't possibly know that
• Lastly, most rely on the GNU library loader which doesn't offer an API for programmatic library discovery so we can't work around it either (It also has aged me 3 decades in one week and left me bitter and disappointed; I do not understand why the Linux community at large chooses to keep it this way.)

On Windows this isn't an issue, because the ICU library name is well known and symbol renaming isn't being used (e.g. all exports are unversioned like u_errorName).

As such I have to unfortunately reject this request at this time. We're currently considering to include this project into the Microsoft Repository at https://packages.microsoft.com/

[JaredTweed]

@lhecker
Yikes, that's unfortunate. you could make it so that it downloads it as a flatpak, then it would be able to get the updated dependencies. Would you ever consider that?

[lhecker]

Probably not. I'd rather offer an official Linux binary that uses MUSL and relies on the regex and unicode-rs crates to replace ICU. The binary will probably be ~2MB in that case, but that's still a lot less than a flatpak. If you'd like to contribute the necessary changes for that - or even just parts of the changes - I'd be happy to merge it in!

(There's also already an unofficial flatpak, but we don't vet it.)

[JaredTweed]

@lhecker Just so you know, I made the updates and a pull request at #628. Is it good, or do you want me to make some changes?

[lhecker]

No it's all good. It's just that I'm currently dedicating time to Windows Terminal (the other project I maintain). I'll definitely review, (fix if needed), and merge your PR before the next release. Sorry about that.

[JaredTweed]

Awesome! Thanks for the update, I appreciate it!