List of installed applications from prefs.js

[Amy C <mathematical coffee gmail com>]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a list of all installed applications on the system -
by "installed", the ones that turn up in the gnome-shell application
list will do.

Usually I would use Shell.AppSystem.get_default.get_all() to get this
list, but in this case I want to get the list from the prefs.js
widget. Hence, I can't use Shell.

I also tried using a Gtk.AppChooserDialog but this doesn't show all
applications (e.g. the terminal, which I definitely want to show up),
and one of the list users (Milan) pointed out to me  that this is
because the terminal has no MIME types.

So, how can I get a list of installed applications from a process
outside of the gnome-shell one (no access to Shell, etc)?

For example gcampax's Auto Move Windows extension has a prefs dialog
where you can select an application to apply a rule to, but it uses
Gtk.AppChooserDialog so if I wanted to apply a rule to the Terminal, I
wouldn't be able to.

cheers