Create a portable, statically linked AppImage Linux package

[Mikolaj]

The game binary already incorporates all data files it needs, including fonts.

With some luck, we could link the game fully statically as at https://github.com/utdemir/ghc-musl and https://github.com/nh2/static-haskell-nix.

Then, if there is any value added in that, it could be packages as AppImage (https://docs.appimage.org/index.html).

Related: Windows binaries could be statically linked as well, perhaps, to avoid distributing all those dlls as separate files.

Edit: see the note at the end of Makefile.

[Mikolaj]

A hint I overheard about how to create an appImage:

stack install hsinstall
hsinstall --mk-appimage packagename
https://gitlab.com/dpwiz/ld48/-/tree/main/util/resources/appimage
what's supposed to be in the share/hsinstall directory?
copy the files from the hsinstall repo to the right directory manually

but I'm no longer sure I'm willing to spend time wrestling with static linking after the ordeal of utdemir/ghc-musl#14

[Mikolaj]

Closing until there's is a hardcore volunteer willing to move it forward or until I move from SDL2 to Vulkan or whatever video library permits (easy) static linking.

[nh2]

In static-haskell-nix,I have succeeded building SDL2 and associated libraries statically now, and also LambdaHack, with some overrides I still need to clean up.

But what needs research is how to make a static SDL2 find a graphics card or use software rendering via Mesa llvmpipe:

/nix/store/wydhcgwplw9grms8d3y8sdfm5srg8xgb-LambdaHack-0.10.2.0/bin/LambdaHack
LambdaHack: SDLCallFailed {sdlExceptionCaller = "SDL.Init.init", sdlFunction = "SDL_Init", sdlExceptionError = "No available video device"}

nh2/static-haskell-nix#108 (comment)