XXIIVV
faeputing
faeputing19D04

A collection of Varvara programs from an alternate past.

These are the principal utilities that I have running at all times while I work on the computer. They started off as ports of Macintosh System 7 programs, but have since been standardized and optimized to do as little redraw and disk access as possible.

They all support window shade, of course.

Unix systems

To make a rom usable across your unix system like an application, edit ~/.bashrc, and make the location of your Uxn emulator(example: ~/bin) visible by adding the lines:

export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

alias calendar='uxn11 ~/roms/calendar.rom'
alias  notepad='uxn11 ~/roms/notepad.rom'
alias   noodle='uxn11 ~/roms/noodle.rom'
alias   oekaki='uxn11 ~/roms/oekaki.rom'
alias    turye='uxn11 ~/roms/turye.rom'
alias    theme='uxn11 ~/roms/theme.rom'
alias     left='uxn11 ~/roms/left.rom'
alias     nasu='uxn11 ~/roms/nasu.rom'
alias     nebu='uxn11 ~/roms/nebu.rom'
alias     dexe='uxn11 ~/roms/dexe.rom'
alias     cccc='uxn11 ~/roms/cccc.rom'
alias     m291='uxn11 ~/roms/m291.rom'

alias drifblim='uxncli ~/roms/drifblim.rom'
alias drifloon='uxncli ~/roms/drifloon.rom'
alias   uxnfor='uxncli ~/roms/uxnfor.rom'
alias   uxnlin='uxncli ~/roms/uxnlin.rom'
alias       hx='uxncli ~/roms/hx.rom'

After saving, run source ~/.bashrc to apply your changes, and enjoy calling the programs from anywhere, like: 

left src/main.tal

•/PC

M/PC is a concatenative operating system for Varvara, inspired by Openfirmware, designed to manage files on system without a file browser. It uses the postfix notation, meaning that the function success their operands:

( Get the number of bytes in folder/file_name )
folder/ file_name cat len dec

The interface uses a single prompt at the top of the screen to input commands:

Controls

The operating system can be used largely without a keyboard to navigate folders and launch roms:

Wallpaper

On boot, M/PC will try and draw an ICN file named wallpaperWWxHH.icn, where WW is the width of the screen divided by 8 in hexadecimal, and HH the height.

Kiosk

To start M/PC as a BIOS rom so that when the user presses F4, Varvara returns to the BIOS instead of triggering a reboot, launch with arguments:

uxnemu m_pc.rom orca.rom run

Reference

It comes loaded with a few primitives to manage files and file names.

dir ( -- [f] )
	Put the file names in the current location on the stack.
mov ( path -- [f] )
	Move the current location to current/path, then do dir.

now ( -- date time )
	Puts the date Tue, 23 Jun 2026, and time 11:48:45 on the stack.

run ( f.rom -- ok )
	Load and run the rom file, return with F4.
icn ( f.icn blend -- ok )
	Draw an icn file with blend.
txt ( f.txt line -- ok )
	Read a text file starting at line.
len ( f -- hex )
	Put the length of a file in hexadecimal.
put ( body f -- ok )
	Create a file with the content of body.
get ( f -- body )
	Put the content of a file on the stack.
cpy ( fsrc fdst -- ok )
	Copy the content of fsrc into fdst.
era ( f -- ok )
	Erase file.
ren ( fsrc fdst -- ok )
	Rename file fsrc into fdst.

pop ( a -- )
	Pop symbol at the top of the stack.
dup ( a -- a a )
	Duplication symbol at the top of the stack.
ovr ( a b -- a b a )
	Copy second symbol to the top of the stack.
swp ( a b -- b a )
	Pull the second symbol to top.
rot ( a b c -- b c a )
	Pull the third symbol to top.

dec ( hex -- dec )
	Convert hexadecimal number to decimal.
hex ( dec -- hex )
	Convert decimal number to hexadecimal.
cat ( a b -- ab )
	Create a new symbol made of the joined names of the top two symbols.

cmp ( a b -- bool )
	Compare the names of the top two symbols.
and ( a b -- bool )
	Put true if both symbols are true.
ora ( a b -- bool )
	Put true if either symbol is true.

rsz ( width height -- )
	Resize the screen, puts true if resize is supported by Screen.
out ( a -- )
	Output symbol to Console/write.
bye ( -- )
	Quit.

A note pad.

An original design by Donn Denman for the Macintosh.

A calendar.

Press enter to add or edit an event. Events are recorded in a relative text file simply called by the current year, the content is a date in the YYYY-MM-DD format, a tab and the event name:

2026-02-04	Movie Night w/ Alex, 8pm
2026-04-22	Earth Day Meetup @ Catal, 5pm
..

A calculator.

The CCCC calculator is a 16-bit postfix calculator that uses fractions as primitives. It includes two special operators, the reciprocal operator and the yet unnamed operator that is the mirror of a division, where instead of putting the first whole number over the second, it makes whole numbers of the numerator and denominator. The Factorization Mode displays the prime factors each number on the stack.

Basic operations

Stack operations

The calculator plays notes inspired from the Casio VL-80, you can use it to play little tunes.

A music player.

This player was originally created to test an experimental feature of Uxn11 that allows Varvara to communicate with non-uxn programs, but has since become the only music player that I use. It works as a front-end client to mpg123. The project was created in collaboration with d6.

A catclock, uh.

This Uxntal implementation of the catclock was created in collaboration with Rekka Bellum.

Catclock is originally a X10 program by Tony Della Fera, Dave Mankins, Ed Moy, Deanna Hohn and Philip Schneider, crafted for entertainment, in the late 1980's. It was also ported to the Plan 9 operating system by Tom Duff, which is where I first came across the catclock.

incoming: azolla research faqs aesthetics 2025