Thomas Adam

Style ThomasAdam StartsOnDesk 0, StartsOnPage 0 0, SkipMapping

I maintain/contribute to various projects such as: got, fvwm, tmux, x11cp, CoW

User/Contributor/Developer of {Free,Net,Open}BSD as well as Linux.

Avid cryptic crossword solver, especially the Guardian cryptics.

I used to contribute to the cryptic crossword clues on: @LearnCrypticCrosswords

From England, United Kingdom

Public Key

npub1vylzcqlnl3su0uzunl764c0gnl0gqak49xha4zdyrpxsh7gr8q9qsv4af2

NIP-05 Address

thomasadam@bsd-network.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxz03vq0elccw87pwflld2u85flh5qwm2jnt763xjpsngtlypnszspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsl79cg8

Publishing to

atlas.nostr.land

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1vylzcqlnl3su0uzunl764c0gnl0gqak49xha4zdyrpxsh7gr8q9qsv4af2

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-01 19:12:39 UTC

#netbsd #ai — I can’t recall whom but I’m sure I’d read recently that NetBSD allowed AI code. This fits against all the literature I’ve read.
Could someone confirm either way?

2026-09-30 16:50:23 UTC

#cow #fvwm #wayland
Container Windows?
I've working on a proof-of-concept for a top-level container window which is able to contain other windows in a grid/column fashion.
I've completely and unashamedly (imitation is the highest form of flattery, apparently) stolen the idea of this from shod:
https://seninha.org/projects/shod.html
But I do like the concept a lot.
You can see how this might work from the screenshot below.
I'm still toying around with the idea of this, and I've been working on this since Tuesday this week, in the evenings. I'm hoping to have this mostly done by Sunday, other activities notwithstanding.
Maybe CoW now needs to be renamed to: Container On Wayland? Heh!
Interesting idea, eh? ;)
In the screenshot, you're looking at a container window also with a tabbed window, so they're still supported as-is in CoW, for those who use tabbed windows already.
Cc: @nprofile…s8lr
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/117/361/009/406/333/198/original/dd0a2ef80737c655.png

2026-09-27 11:21:37 UTC

#got #gameoftrees #vcs
Hello,
I've released got-portable version 0.129
There's nothing -portable-specific in this release, so please refer to GoT's release notes here:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/changes.html#2026-09-26
For -portable information, see:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Any questions, do please let me know.

2026-09-26 19:55:05 UTC

#opentmux #tmux
Hey all -- for those of you interested on #opentmux I'd like your opinion. What do I do with this codebase? I don't sent to chase feature-parity with tmux -- but at the same time, there could be a perceived stagnation if I do nothing.
I've asked the same question on the #opentmux IRC channel on irc.libera.chat
But do please let me know what you'd like me to work on next. One person has suggested "stability" -- anything else?
Let me know.

2026-09-25 17:26:26 UTC

#omarchy #wealth
I wouldn't usually get political here, but I think it's sickening how a madman has garnered millions of pounds when there's plenty of other institutional open source projects which we rely on every day who''ll never get to this level of monetary support.
I do try in my own way to support the projects I love where I can -- #freebsd, #openbsd, #gameoftrees, etc., all of which I've put some level of money behind.
Don't neglect the power of this -- and don't listen to the hype around some fascist's projects building up millions of pounds.
Your individual support means more than you could know.
I absolutely love #gameoftrees, for example, and I know my paid for VM goes a long way to supporting that project. See? You can make a difference and not even realise it. :)

2026-09-24 17:02:16 UTC

#motif #xlib #book
"Motif Reference Manual for Motif 6B"
See:
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Motif_Reference_Manual_for_Motif_2_1.html?id=ic1QAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
I have Volume 6A already, but the follow-up to this is -- Volume 6B -- elusive in the UK (United Kingdom).
I've done the usual searches on eBay, Amazon, AbeBooks, etc., and all are turning up blank. OR, such a book is available, but will cost over £100 after shipping, etc., usually from the US.
Something I'm reluctant to consider at this point.
So, does anyone who reads the crap I post here, have any ideas where I can source a copy of this books, or know someone who has a copy and is willing to part with it.
More than happy to pay for it, of course.
Any help is gratefully received and appreciated. :)
Thanks all! Let me know if you have any questions, etc.

2026-09-11 12:56:13 UTC

#fvwm #ai
I'll formalise this over the weekend in the README or something.
But...
fvwm is an old project -- well over 30 years of development. It came at a time when the people working on it *really* knew their stuff. They had to think about how fvwm interacted with xlib/xserver implementations, and work a lot things out for themselves.
That doesn't include myself, by the way. By the time I started pissing about with fvwm, a lot of that heavy-thinking had been done for me.
All of it was done without AI, obviously.
It's absolutely important that fvwm continues to be maintained with this history in mind, to introduce AI would destroy that approach in a way which also destroys the people who have worked on it over the many years it has been alive.
So, fvwm will have an "no AI" policy in place very soon.
It'll just be a simple statement -- unlike many other projects I've seen recently who attempt to evangelise this point, that's not what fvwm will be doing.
This will likely only apply to about 1.5 people on the planet, so I know this will slip under the radar unnoticed. :)
Less fodder for hackernews and its ilk, I guess. :)

2026-09-05 18:18:32 UTC

#cow #wayland #fvwm
I've released CoW-0.3:
https://codeberg.org/cow-wm/cow/releases/tag/0.3
This release contains a lot of things -- many of them holdovers from previous releases in the sense that they were not ready for releases before it.
- Resizing a window (`window-resize -e DIR`) can how be told to use the closest side of the window.
- cowpager can be configured to define custom bg/fg colours for windows/page backgrounds/etc.
- A new example TWM configuration exists in the repo.
- A new diagnostics program -- cowdiag -- can help in looking at latency problems.
I've also had a good slew of bug-fixes from other people.
Usual things goes to @nprofile…hl5m, mcermak, and other new contributors in the 0.3 release notes.
What is CoW? It's a window manager running on top of the River compositor.
As always, come join us on #cow-wayland on irc.libera.chat
Bug-reports, and other observations welcome.
Enjoy!

2026-09-05 16:12:45 UTC

#cow #wayland #fvwm
CoW's website now has a section on the commits which will form the next release:
https://cow-wm.codeberg.page/cow/
Since this site is statically-generated, such information is only generated when main has received changes.
Which is fine -- that's the canonical source of truth anyway.
Speaking of a release, I plan on releasing 0.3 tonight or tomorrow morning.
So if you want to know what's going to be in it, go take a look at CoW's website. ;P

2026-09-05 13:12:12 UTC

#motif #x11 #xlib
Remembering Kenton Lee.
When I was doing a lot of Xlib programming (and Motif) for fun, I remembered Kenton Lee had a wealth of knowledge.
Sadly, his original website is no more -- and even if it were -- was back in the days of http/ftp.
Although bits of it are mirrored on the wayback machine, that can be a PITA to use.
Using those files and some bits I had from back in the day, I've reconstituted most of Kenton's website:
https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/kl-motif-web
I'm also running a mirror of this:
https://xteddy.org/mirror/kentonlee
I think it's historically important enough that I'd like to preserve it in this way, alongside what archive.org are already doing.
It would be interesting to know if Kenton Lee is still with us and whether he has any other motif-related information. If anyone can ascertain his whereabouts, I'd be interested to know!
Cc: @nprofile…4y4t / @nprofile…g0nl

2026-09-05 10:47:34 UTC

#got #gameoftrees #vcs
I've released got-portable 0.128
No -portable-specific changes whatsoever, so go and see got's changes:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/changes.html#2026-09-04
For more general -portable information, see:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Any questions, please let me know.

2026-08-28 15:46:16 UTC

#cow #fvwm
"1005001001000 -- see? (5)"
You do now...
This is a completely pointless module in CoW -- cowclock, but it is meant as a bit of fun.
See the screenshot attached.
Note that the clock can be configured to run anticlockwise.
No... I don't want a digital clock.
I could have written this as a standalone program. I could easily make it as such, depends on what other type of small apps I write. Maybe I could create a little collection of them over time to be used anywhere. Hmmmm.
CoW is a WM on River: https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/117/173/904/166/687/747/original/ef1754cde1a2dbf5.png

2026-08-19 13:44:33 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…650u @nprofile…650u There’s a PR from me to package fvwm3, but I suppose the demand for it isn’t there. I think the package review is a big bottleneck on Alpine.

2026-08-11 17:21:13 UTC

#vt320 #tty #cables
Hey all,
I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who can point me in the eight direction.
I have a VT320 terminal I want to use, but am lacking the MMJ cable -- this is quite common.
I'm not in a position to create one myself, and even then, likely won't be able to connect to a computer without a USB to serial converter anyway.
I'm curious if there's anyone in the UK/Europe who makes these cables, in which case I'm happy to pay for that -- I just don't want to try making this myself, as I don't have the time.
Any help much appreciated.

2026-08-08 16:55:09 UTC

#fvwm #cow #wayland
It's now possible to define icons in menus.
There's two configurable options:
menu-style icon.path ~/.config/cow/icons:/usr/local/share/icons
This tells CoW where to look for icons.
menu-style icon.size 16
This sets the size.
In practice, it's therefore possible to, say:
menu-add -I foo.png "Foo"
Screenshot attached,
Thanks to @nprofile…hl5m for all her hard work in testing this, and coming up with the proposal in the first place.
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/117/060/932/399/556/040/original/777e550d6817244f.png

2026-08-02 13:42:13 UTC

#fvwm #cow #wayland
Hey all,
I'm slowly working toward a default theme, per: https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow/issues/55
See the screenshot attached.
This mimics the AnotherLevel theme from RedHat 5.X days, from early 1994 onward.
This is how I started out with fvwm.
No, it's not nostalgic for me, but I do like how it looks.
I suspect some of you might not.
If you want to change it, now's your chance, otherwise this is going to become the default theme...
Have fun!
CoW is a window manager for wayland running on top of the River compositor, see: https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/117/026/198/003/201/746/original/fd5d64715412a667.png

2026-07-26 15:40:08 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hl5m Great! Thanks. I’ll take a look in a few hours! It’ll be because cowrearrange has separate logic. Should be easy enough to fix. 🙂
I’m loving the bug reports, thank you. 🙂

2026-07-26 12:54:43 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hl5m Although not the same thing, “tiling” can be achieved manually via the window-expand command, or more automatically via cowrearrange.

2026-07-20 20:25:53 UTC

#gameoftrees #got #vcs
Hi all,
I've released got-portable 0.127
This release tracks got-0.127, no -portable specific changes.
Behind the scenes though, I have now moved got's CI from Cirrus-CI (RIP; they were good to us) to sr.ht's build infrastructure.
More details about this release can be found here:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Any questions, please let me know.

2026-07-19 15:43:08 UTC

#cow #fvwm #wayland
Menu support in cow.
I've been looking into this for a while and have a prototype of sorts.
A new `menu-add` command defines and creates menus, similar to how fvwm operates now.
Colour gradients are supported, nested-submenus, etc.
I'm still working on this, but here's a screenshot to whet appetites, etc.
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/116/947/404/741/406/492/original/e6696a9845fff459.png

2026-06-27 21:40:22 UTC

#fvwm #fvwm3
Hello all,
fvwm3-1.1.5 has been released.
See:
https://github.com/fvwmorg/fvwm3/releases/tag/1.1.5
This is mostly a bug-fix release. FvwmPrompt has been simplified which I hope eases issues with downstream maintainers.
FvwmConsole has now gone -- use FvwmCommand or FvwmPrompt.
Enjoy!

2026-06-06 16:25:26 UTC

#cow #fvwm #wayland
Hello all. Here's a few minor updates since I last posted:
* Output management improvements. Now, when, monitors are turned off, or one switches to a VT and back again, window positions are restored correctly. This is controlled by `set preserve_desk_on_output_loss` which defaults to true. Setting this to `false` will use the first available output and desk and mash all windows onto that.
* A new `desk-name` command to rename and limit the number of desks per output. There's also a `desks.count` setting to control the minimum number of desks.
Plus a few bug-fixes.
Since my last post, I've not had an offer to help overhaul the default config. That's OK -- but I admit, a pity as well.
I would also say it's worth looking at the outstanding PRs as well:
https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow/pulls
They're all from me, each in a state of "I'm working on them". The most recent is the DSL PR, which I hope will help with low-level scripting.
If there is anyone interested in helping this project, please join the #cow-wayland channel on irc.libera.chat and I'd be more than happy to find something worthwhile!
Enjoy!

2026-05-25 18:02:09 UTC

#cow #fvwm #wayland
Default config needs an overhaul.
I've opened this issue:
https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow/issues/55
I know my own garish tastes are not for everyone (thank goodness!). As such, I'd like the default config to be as accessible to everyone -- at least obvious enough such that it's clear how to change it.
With what we have at the moment, things are biased to what I like.
With this issue, I'd like some discourse on how we could create something non-offensive but useful to people.
I'm more than happy to chat about this.
Again, see the issue. mentioned above, and/or join me and others on '#cow-wayland' IRC channel on libera.chat
See you there, I hope? :)

2026-05-21 15:49:54 UTC

#gameoftrees #got #vcs
I've released got's -portable version 0.126
Same features as this version of got; no -portable specific changes in this release.
See: https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Usual mirror updated as well.
Any questions about this release, let me know.

2026-05-06 19:01:33 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…e92q For what it’s worth, I’m in the process of developing cow:
https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow
It’s got more holes in it than Swiss cheese, mind.

2026-04-06 16:33:01 UTC

#fvwm #mwm #wm #wayland
Hello everyone, and Happy Easter!
I've been busy trying to get to this point, and I'm finding it useable enough that I wanted to mention it here.
I'm releasing some code!
cow, is a "Compositor on Wayland", which aims to look-and-feel like mwm and fvwm from X11, but instead, running on wayland.
https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow
The README.md (screenshot), and associated config file example should be enough to get you started for now, if you're interested.
There's still a tonne of things to do before I even consider a release -- and no doubt there's a shed load of bugs, etc.
So if you're interested in using a wayland window manager that looks like it's stuck in the early 90s, give this thing a go.
An IRC channel exists on libera.chat -- #cow-wayland if you want to come and say "hello".
Any issues... err, chuck an issue on Codeberg, please. Note that I won't be providing any mirrors of this on GH. Codeberg is where this project is officially hosted.

2026-03-06 19:21:51 UTC

#gameoftrees #macOS #got
Hi all.
Just putting the feelers out as I'd love to know how many folks are using got on MacOs.
@nprofile…7zgm does an amazing job every time I make a release of gameoftrees portable, but I could do with knowing how many of you are using it.
I made a change in the 0.123 release to fix socket handling for services such as gotwebd, which is good, but it's telling that it's taken this long, so I wonder how many users we have.
Let me know -- you can always email me at: thomas.adam22@gmail.com
Please boost this as much as possible, I'd appreciate it.

2026-02-25 17:59:01 UTC

#gameoftrees #got
I've released got-portable 0.123
This is in-line with got(1):
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/changes.html
There is one addition in this -portable release but is out-of-band with got(1) and it's a fix for chroot(1) handling in gotwebd which was not being passed to children of gotwebd. This will be in got-0.124 when that releases.
On MacOS, socket handling has been reworked to use fcntl() for a few SOCKET_* flags otherwise supported on other platforms.
Also -portable-specific is a new got-portable(7) man page:
https://gameoftrees.org/got-portable.7.html
Which aims to collate useful information for users of got(1) on non-OpenBSD platforms.
As usual, the changelog for -portable is here:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/portable/CHANGELOG
Usual mirror (xteddy) has been updated.
Any questions please shout at me!

2026-01-31 13:17:32 UTC

#got #gameoftrees #got-portable
Hello!
As with got's upstream release, I've released got-portable-0.121
More information here:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/portable/CHANGELOG
Do see got's own CHANGES file for the specifics:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/portable/CHANGELOG
xteddy mirror also updated.
Now shut up and hack!

2025-09-30 19:20:38 UTC

#perl #best-practice
I spent the first part of my so-called "career" writing mostly perl.
At that time, the technical lead who was in charge had this, rather odd, to me at least, "rule" that if a given string in Perl was to incur interpolation, we should use double-quotes, and for anything literal, use single-quotes.
Here's an example:
my $foo = "yes";
print "$foo, of course you can";
versus:
print 'Hello, hope all is well';
I remember this "rule" being enforced at code-review time -- it was a PITA to be honest. I would have just preferred double-quoted strings for everything, regardless.
That way, if you did have a string which was to contain a variable, it wouldn't be an issue.
Has anyone else got any interesting stories of stuff like this?

2025-08-18 16:16:09 UTC

#got #gameoftrees
I've released got-portable 0.117
No -portable specific changes worth mentioning.
As usual, see GoT's own release notes:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/changes.html#2025-08-17
For anything -portable, see:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Note that, from got-portable-0.118, I will begin using signify(1) to sign got-portable releases.
Apologies I didn't get round to doing it for 0.117

2025-07-26 11:04:18 UTC

#got #gameoftrees
I've released the -portable version of gameoftrees -- 0.116
No -portable specific changes, so please see got's upstream changes.
Usual mirror updated.
See: https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
GoT changelog: https://gameoftrees.org/releases/changes.html#2025-07-25
Questions, let me know.

2025-07-08 18:35:12 UTC

#xorg #x11 #wayland
So, I mentioned before about #11to12 which was an attempt at bring #wayland to #x11
Well, here is #waylandx which is bringing this project something o a facelift:
https://github.com/ThomasAdam/waylandx
This is not a project which I was originally involved with though, all I am doing here is sprucing things up...
You should now be able to build this with #meson rather than #xmkmf tooling.
Next up, I need to address the version of the protocols its using, as they're a little out of date.
Given the recent noise about #wayback (https://lobste.rs/s/9vvhzr/two_weeks_wayback) this might be a nice alternative.
No matter how stupid it seems.
All #wayback does is run xwayland for you, which when all is said-and-done still won't mean much as you can't run wayland applications under it anyway.
Whereas, #waylandx strives to change that.
It might be intersting to see if you can run waylandx under xwayland.... heh, heh.
If you have any questions let me know. Better yet, open an issue on GH:
https://github.com/ThomasAdam/waylandx/issues
I've already put some there, if anyone is interested!

2025-07-03 20:52:52 UTC

I came home to find Angus has transformed…
Señor Angusto.
Moochas Grassias!
#cow
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/114/791/278/115/516/295/original/7a1aee37d6a9c52c.jpeg
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/114/791/282/166/491/711/original/a7ce7ec2863ee463.jpeg
https://media.bsd.network/media_attachments/files/114/791/282/182/958/166/original/23c94db7d1a8efd3.jpeg

2025-06-23 17:48:53 UTC

#gameoftrees #got #vcs
Hey all,
I've released the -portable version got-0.114
No -portable specific changes, see GoT's changes for a summary:
https://gameoftrees.org/releases/changes.html#2025-06-23
For -portable, see:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Enjoy!

2025-05-15 23:12:44 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0ajr Heh, maybe it was lost in translation, but the offer a mirror wasn't for you personally, it was to see whether you'll need it for the MacPort. :)

2025-05-15 16:26:18 UTC

#gameoftrees #got
I've released the -portable version of #gameoftrees, 0.112
This is merely tracking got-0.112 and has no -portable changes in it at all.
Usual details, etc., can be found here:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
@nprofile…0ajr -- if you'd like me to mirror the -portable releases somewhere for you to access, let me know.

2025-05-02 21:00:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0ajr @nprofile…gkft @nprofile…jp74 Be careful. It’s a code mirror only. I don’t upload releases there.

2025-03-21 17:07:04 UTC

#gameoftrees #got
I've released got-portable 0.110
This release tracks got-0.110
I've cut this release mid-cycle since got upstream released 0.110, so the -portable release does contain commits which will eventually be in got-0.111
This should not be a problem since the bulk of the work is on gotsysd, which -portable won't have.
As always you can find more information here:
https://gameoftrees.org/portable.html
Apologies this release took a little longer than usual, $DAYJOB has been busy.

2025-03-17 17:08:51 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0ajr @nprofile…gkft @nprofile…0ajr -- Can you remind me which MacPorts conversation we were having last year around older MacOS versions? I can't recall which issue it was, but coiuld you dig it out for me?

2025-03-03 21:05:57 UTC

#crossword #crypticcrossword #guardian
For some time, I've mainted this:
https://xteddy.org/gcc-analysis.html
It updates daily, quite happily.
But it uses mongodb. which when compared to something like #duckdb blows.
So I'm going to migrate the backend, and rewrite it. From Perl -> golang (most likely).
The frontend uses c3js for it's charting library. If anyone has any suggestions for alternatives, do say!
I am also aware of https://evidence.dev which looks interesting...
I should say that the page I maintain is static.

2025-02-16 16:39:13 UTC

#wayland #xorg #windowmanagers
I've decided to centralise some of the mailing list posts I've made recently about Wayland how lack of drawing primitives hampers choice. For example:
https://marc.info/?l=fvwm&m=170741836229965&w=2
I've written up a few of my thoughts here:
https://gist.github.com/ThomasAdam/5377540b3025f7f04735d96ee64354fd
I know some of you here care about this, so this is for you...
No inflammatory comments, please. ;)

2024-11-29 06:14:29 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0ajr This is now fixed.
Apologies! I've started to semi-automate the release process for -portable, and neglected to add the tarball.

2024-11-28 19:46:50 UTC

@nprofile…5dn6 -- thanks for the recent fixes to #imsg for non-BSD systems. I can confirm this working in both #tmux and #got
One thing I'm interested in knowing is what prompted these API changes to imsg?
Not that I think they're wrong, but something must have precipitated them. This will help me appreciate future changes, and to keep better track of such things. :)

2024-10-07 19:19:15 UTC

- reply

@npub18je…uypq Yes, I think so. The key thing here, as you've noted is to calculate the offset of the page based on the screen.
In your commit, you've used:
while (x < 0) ...
while (y < 0) ...
It's probably unnecessary to do that, but it won't hurt in practice.
See, for example, the implementation in FindScreenOfXY(): https://github.com/fvwmorg/fvwm3/blob/main/libs/FScreen.c#L801
Which is essentially doing the same thing.
Everything else outside of this check is just noise.

2024-07-07 15:48:56 UTC

- reply

@npub1l6r…sa08 Interestingly do you have a good recipe for potato salad which doesn’t involve mayonnaise?
I hate mayonnaise. Don’t like sour cream either.
Alternatives welcome. 🙂

2024-05-01 11:20:34 UTC

When #science meets #coffee...
I'm wondering whether I could make warm milk for coffee using a magnetic stirrer with a heating element?
I bet that'd be fun...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_stirrer