Re: Anyone out there to help with Wily?

[Mack Wallace <>]

I’d like to thank those that helped. I was able to get the win program running on top of Wily. I had to download the 9libs library and compile that, but that was not a problem. 

My interest in Wily has to do with finding software to compile and use on my Amiga that I have running AT&T System V Unix (SVr4). X11R5 runs on the box, but there isn’t much software outside the standard X11 programs. Being a true AT&T implementation, it used the Open Look Intrinsics Toolkit and not Motif. Lacking a Motif library, (nor a working copy of GNU Binutils), precludes compiling many things that would otherwise be “simple.” 

I’m also a fan of Plan 9, and would have loved if there was a kernel for the Amiga. It would have made great sense if there was a kernel for those older machines; because then one could use those machines as terminals against a modern CPU server - and the Plan 9 file system would make the connection appear seamless. Lacking that, Plan 9 for user space would be nice, but that requires threading, and unfortunately, while the version of SVr4 I have appears to have threading, it is not Posix compatible pthreads. And also there are no man pages for the threading functions or asyncio header files that I do have. 

So Wily seems to fit the bill. I was able to compile it, and its a nice Plan 9 derivative. Unfortunately, I too am having some three button mouse issues. The old three button mouse I have for the machine is the old optical type that requires a special reflective pad. I have the pad, but the mouse if very flakey, sometimes just freezes on the screen and won’t move, or sometimes just vibrates in place. The mechanical mice I have are only two button which makes it kind of impossible to work with Wily. What I’m trying to do now is convert an old vaxstation mouse (looks like a hockey puck with three buttons) into an amiga mouse - which shouldn’t be too difficult as the amiga mouse is basically a bus mouse, the pulses from the optical sensors being sent directly to the computer for processing, rather than through some serial controller. 

However, as for the Mac - I have been able to bring up Wily remotely on my Mac. From here one can simulate the middle button using an option key and left click and use Wily successfully. However, your point Beirne made me curious if there were other options available to have a middle mouse button or have mouse chords on the Mac trackpad. After a little search I found a program called MagicPrefs that allows a Mac user to add different “clicks” to different gestures, include three, four, or five fingered clicks. And those can be transformed to various actions. This still lacks some of the chording that a true three button mouse is capable of, but it may be something that makes Wily or acme usable with a Mac trackpad. 

On Nov 10, 2016, at 6:56 AM, Beirne Konarski <> wrote:

I was surprised to see a 2 next to my wilyfans folder and assumed it was span, so it is good to see real messages. I miss wily. Since the project stopped when acme became widely available I have tried acme several times, but between having its own file area and variety of minor nuisances, it just wasn't as useful as wily. The other problem is the end of the three button mouse. While pressing the wheel can count as a button push, it isn't as fluid because it is harder to push than a regular button. The other problem is that most of the time I'm on a Mac and use a trackpad, which obviously won't do mouse cords at all. I've ended up back with vim, which I'm actually happy enough with, but I do miss using Wily.

m("stanford.edu","jim.robinson");" style="color:#485664 !important;padding-right:6px;font-weight:500;text-decoration:none !important;" class="">James A. Robinson

October 29, 2016 at 1:38 PM

On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 7:12 AM Mack Wallace <m("mapinternet.com","mackbw");" class="">> wrote:

> seem to get wcat to compile. There are two .h files which I don’t

> have. There’s a util.h and a libmsg.h that are missing. I know that

> the util.h is probably a shortcoming of the Amiga SVr4 installation,

> but the libmsg.h I presume is part of the libmsg library that is

> compiled as part of Wily. Looking at the includes, there is a msg.h,

> and the calls in this are similar to one in wcat.h. However, there

> are some items, like Mqueue, that are not in msg.h. I’m presuming

> that this is because the old libmsg library may have had a different

> interface? Is there a fix for this?

Cracking open the old archive I had of wily tools, I see a version

of wcat with these includes:

./tools/c/wcat.c

#include <unistd.h>

#include <u.h>

#include <libc.h>

#include <libg.h>

#include <msg.h>

#include <signal.h>

#include <limits.h>

(I've put the tar ball here, and will leave it up for a few days:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwS7AQLLe1lgOFc4NnhLREpvUXc?usp=sharing)

And from https://github.com/knusbaum/Wily I see these:

./wily/tools/old/wilytoys/toys/wcat.c

#include <stdio.h>

#include <unistd.h>

#include <u.h>

#include <libc.h>

#include <util.h>

#include <libg.h>

#include <libmsg.h>

./wily/tools/old/wilytoys/wcat.c

#include <stdio.h>

#include <unistd.h>

#include <u.h>

#include <libc.h>

#include <util.h>

#include <libg.h>

#include <libmsg.h>

./wily/tools/quanstro/wcat.c

#include <unistd.h>

#include <u.h>

#include <libc.h>

#include <libg.h>

#include <msg.h>

#include <signal.h>

#include <sys/limits.h>

Looking at these four blocks of includes, the first and last ones

in that last look to be pretty self contained (and I suspect the

latter was almost surely from Erik Quanstrom who is very active on

the 9fans list, but the last I message I see from him to wilyfans was

in 2001).  Have you got unistd.h, signal.h, and either limits.h

or sys/limits.h in your local system?

> Second, there is a ./tools/win. Per the readme, this is a simple

> terminal that resides in a Wily window? I have managed to compile

> this. However, when I try to invoke it in Wily, I get ‘/bin/sh:

> win: not found.’ If I try to run it from the command line, it says

> ‘win: unable to open master pty at win.c:729 in openmaster(). I

> assume this is saying that it can’t find the Wily program running

> (even though it is).

Yes, win is a terminal system meant to be run from within Wily

itself, rather like Acme win.  That error, "/bin/sh: win not found"

sounds simply like your environment wasn't set up with an execution

path that included the win binary.

I honestly can't recall if there was anything special about running

wily / win, it's been too long, but if you haven't already tried

this I would try setting your PATH variable, or whatever the

equivalent is under Amiga's shell, before launching the wily

editor.

For example, if I had a dir /home/jimr/bin/wily/ that contained

wcat and win, and I were setting up PATH for the first time and

launching the editor:

$ PATH=/home/jimr/bin/wily:/home/jimr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

$ export PATH

$ wily

normally that PATH setting would be in some standard file, like

/home/jimr/.bashrc if I were running bash under Linux or Mac OS X.

> So aside from the questions I have above, is there anybody out >

there?

Out here as in existing?  Or out here and still using Wily?  I was

forced to leave off using Wily when I moved to a Mac and it's amazing

one-button-mouse-to-rule-them-all, and then years later went to use

Plan9port when I came back to the Plan 9 tools (w/ it's modifier keys

so  I could actually make use of chording-oriented commands).

I don't think there is much activity on this list.  The last email I have

in my archive is from 2006...

Jim

m("mapinternet.com","mackbw");" style="color:#485664 !important;padding-right:6px;font-weight:500;text-decoration:none !important;" class="">Mack Wallace

October 29, 2016 at 10:11 AM

Hi,

I just recently compiled Wily on a version of Amiga Unix. Given the dearth of software available that will run on the old machine, it’s nice to have something that can act as an editor and a means to click around the file system.

Along with the Wily tarball (for 0.13.42) is a directory called tools which has a number of “add-ons.” / accompanying programs. Unfortunately, I am having difficulty getting any of them to compile or work, and was wondering if there was anyone who could lend a hand.

Under ./tools/old/wilytoys. I would like to compile this for the man viewer and the html viewer. I know neither will be particularly impressive, but would be a nice little addition. However, I can not seem to get wcat to compile. There are two .h files which I don’t have. There’s a util.h and a libmsg.h that are missing. I know that the util.h is probably a shortcoming of the Amiga SVr4 installation, but the libmsg.h I presume is part of the libmsg library that is compiled as part of Wily. Looking at the includes, there is a msg.h, and the calls in this are similar to one in wcat.h. However, there are some items, like Mqueue, that are not in msg.h. I’m presuming that this is because the old libmsg library may have had a different interface? Is there a fix for this?

Second, there is a ./tools/win. Per the readme, this is a simple terminal that resides in a Wily window? I have managed to compile this. However, when I try to invoke it in Wily, I get ‘/bin/sh: win: not found.’ If I try to run it from the command line, it says ‘win: unable to open master pty at win.c:729 in openmaster(). I assume this is saying that it can’t find the Wily program running (even though it is).

So aside from the questions I have above, is there anybody out there?

Regards,

Mack

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