Oliver Roberts' WarpDTPrefs - Reaction GUI - and OS 3.1.4

[dschallock]

Hi everyone,
As a registered user of Oliver Roberts' Warp Data Types I was recently challenged with getting the WarpDTPrefs program running on a fresh install of OS 3.1.4 because 3.1.4 does not include Reaction which is the GUI system that comes with OS 3.9.  With the help of others I figured out how to get this working (assuming you own OS 3.9 and 3.1.4) without hurting OS 3.1.4 and wanted to sum up how it was accomplished for anyone else who might be trying to do it.

The challenge/objective of my quest:
The issue is that the WarpDTPrefs program uses the Reaction GUI system which is part of the Amiga OS 3.9 installation (and 3.5).  Currently 3.1.4 does not use reaction out of the box.  I believe Hyperion has acquired Reaction, so this may be a moot point in future releases of the OS (3.2?) but for now, this is how to get WarpDTPrefs working on 3.1.4 and possibly any other Reaction based GUI program that would have worked under 3.9

What you need:
You need a source of an OS 3.9 installation that has the Reaction system installed or the Amiga OS 3.9 CD (Which is what I used).  There may be an archive somewhere with just the files you need but I couldn’t find it on the net.

The solution:
You need to copy 4 groups of files onto your sys: partition
1)   From the 3.9 CD you need to locate and copy the resource.library into your LIBS: directory.
2)   From the 3.9 CD you need to copy all the Sys:Classes/Gadgets /#? Into Sys:Classes/Gadgets/ on your partition.  (Note: on the 3.9 CD there is a OS 3.5 directory and a OS 3.9 directory.  Each of those drawers have a Classes/Gadets/ folder and each have different gadets.  You need to copy the contents of both into your Classes/Gadets/ directory!)
3)   From the 3.9 CD you need to copy all the Sys:Classes/Images/#? Into Sys:Classes/Images/ on your partition. (Note: on the 3.9 CD there is a OS 3.5 directory and a OS 3.9 directory.  Each of those drawers have a Classes/Images/ folder and each have different Images files.  You need to copy the contents of both into your Classes/Images/ directory!)
4)   From the 3.9 CD you need to copy all the Sys:Classes/#?.class files into your Sys:Classes/ directory. (Note: Again… on the 3.9 CD there is a OS 3.5 directory and a OS 3.9 directory.  Each of those drawers have a Classes/  folder and each have different .class files.  You need to copy the contents of both into your Classes/ directory!)

Final Thoughts:
None of the files that I mention above overwrite anything in the fresh 3.1.4 installation; therefore I assume that there is no negative impact on the 3.1.4 installation. (This is a good thing).
Per Oliver Roberts’ suggestion via email, I used snoop dos running and continued trying to run WarpDTPrefs unti I figured out every file that was missing.  For me the confusion was that the Amiga OS 3.9 CD contained a 3.5 and 3.9 directories that each seemed to contain different but apparently necessary .class, .gadet, and .image files from their respective directories.  Although I believe I have covered everything necessary here, when in doubt run snoop dos to see if there is a file missing.
Thank you to the forum members who helped, and especially to Oliver Roberts for his help and for his fantastic Datatypes, I hope he continues developing them and I would encourage anyone considering buying them to do so.  The link to his WaprDT page is: https://www.warpdt.co.uk/

[klx300r]

great info thanks for posting! & agree fully that WarpDT is worth purchasing

[Minuous]

No OS3.5 components are necessary. There is a full set of classes in the Emergency-Boot directory of the OS3.9 CD, just copy them to your hard disk from there.

Also I should point out that a 68020+ is still required, as most ReAction software, and the ReAction classes themselves, are compiled for 68020.

[TribbleSmasher]

So to conclude, one could copy this folder to the root of SYS: as e.g. reaction-kompatibility/ and set an Assign LIBS: ADD to that location and it is done?

[Minuous]

@TribbleSmasher:

Yes, but they are supposed to go in SYS:Classes and there is no reason not to put them in their correct location; they are part of the OS, after all. That way you won't need to assign anything as it is already handled in the startup-sequence.

[TribbleSmasher]

Those are not part of the official install. Some people like to keep their Sys: clean and maintainable to some degree.

[kolla]

@TribbleSmasher:
Yes, but they are supposed to go in SYS:Classes and there is no reason not to put them in their correct location; they are part of the OS, after all. That way you won't need to assign anything as it is already handled in the startup-sequence.

By that logic, why is there SYS:Classes at all, one could just put everything in SYS:Libs...

[Minuous]

@TribbleSmasher:

Those are not part of the official install. Some people like to keep their Sys: clean and maintainable to some degree.

They have been part of every version of AmigaOS except 3.1.4 for the last 20 years, and were only omitted from 3.1.4 because Hyperion did not yet have the rights, not for any technical reason. I fail to see how having BOOPSI classes installed in their proper locations would make anyone's installation unclean and unmaintainable. The entire set of classes fits on a single floppy and does not need any kind of maintenance by the user.

[TribbleSmasher]

There is really no point in discussing why those components aren't included with 3.1.4.
Lets imagine you making a backup of your installation for comparison or whatever you certainly would have a bad time telling which parts are belonging to the original installation. Somebody sees a screenshot of your reaction prefs and wonders, how this runs on 3.1.4, and your reply would be a link to your first post in this thread, which is far to much, imho.
A little script copying all files from the mentioned CD to a dedicated folder with an Assign line in s:user-startup is a nicier prospect.

[kolla]

All this will be solved in 3.2 anyways, though, right?

[Minuous]

@kolla:

All BOOPSI classes will go in SYS:Classes like they have always done. So no, there will not be any problems. If you really want to put them somewhere else instead and have an extra assign, everything will still work.

[kolla]

@kolla:

All ReAction classes will go in SYS:Classes like all BOOPSI classes have always done. So no, there will not be any problems. If you really want to put them somewhere else and have an extra assign, everything will still work.

The SYS:Classes _is_ that somewhere else, that is why there is an "Assign LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD" in your Startup-Sequence.

[Minuous]

BOOPSI classes go in SYS:Classes, devices go in DEVS:, etc. There has always been this division into directories. They could all be crammed into LIBS: but in the interest of being "clean" and "maintainable" it is probably better not to. The speed penalty is negligible even on a floppy-based system, which is why it has been that way since OS1.0.

[kolla]

BOOPSI classes go in SYS:Classes, devices go in DEVS:, etc. There has always been this division into directories. They could all be crammed into LIBS: but in the interest of being "clean" and "maintainable" it is probably better not to. The speed penalty is pretty negligible.

Yes, "clean" and "maintainable", in highly ironic quotation marks - I got you

[dschallock]

To me, the Reaction GUI classes are similar to Datatypes.  They are their own thing that sits in its own folder.  Apps can call them on not.

Because Reaction and class act have been around for many years now it makes sense that there are many apps that utilize them.  It also makes sense that Hyperion couldn't incorporate them into 3.1.4 if they didn't own them, although that has since changed as has been mentioned.  Also, after doing light reading across the forum-verse it is clear to me that Reaction/class act and MUI and every other GUI add on are debatable on whether they are a good thing or a bad thing (look versus bloat).  So moving forward with 3.2 and beyond what becomes the new standard for Amiga OS GUI will be an interesting thing to see how it plays out.  Either way though, in the spirit of backwards compatibility; having some class files sit in a folder by themselves seems like an easy fix to make many programs written for 3.x over the last 20 years.