Unix utility “smiley” to decode emoticons: Where to get it?

Question

I remember in the 90s, there existed a Unix command line utility named smiley that decoded emoticons. A sample use would be like this (the output is likely not the exact output the program gave):

$ smiley ':-o'
:-o  surprise

I've tried to search for it, but couldn't find it. Does it still exist, and if so, where can you get it? I'd also be interested in any other information you may have about it.

Answer 1

If you want to get it running on a modern Posix system, here's what you can do.

Get the source from this archive. (This is a more recent version than the one cited in the other answer.) Follow the instructions to obtain the files bsearch.c, Makefile, etc.

In smiley.c, there is a function explain, which looks like this:

static int
explain(s)
    char           *s;
{
    int             i;

    if((i = fsearch(s)) == -1)
        return 0;

    PUTFACE(FD, i);
    return 1;
#if 0
    int     found = 0;

    for (i = 0; i < nfaces; i++)
    {
        extern int      strcmp();

        if (strcmp(s, faces[i].face) == 0)
        {
            found = 1;
            PUTFACE(FD, i);
        }
    }
    return found;
#endif
}

Simply replace the lines

    if((i = fsearch(s)) == -1)
        return 0;

    PUTFACE(FD, i);
    return 1;

with the #if'd out lines, to obtain

static int
explain(s)
    char           *s;
{
    int             i;
    int     found = 0;

    for (i = 0; i < nfaces; i++)
    {
        extern int      strcmp();

        if (strcmp(s, faces[i].face) == 0)
        {
            found = 1;
            PUTFACE(FD, i);
        }
    }
    return found;
}

Running make will produce several compiler warnings, but you should get a working smiley executable. To check, run smiley ":)"; the correct output is

:)  cheshire cat smile
:)  happy
:)  midget smiley
:)  salamander

Alternatively, since the program is a rather simple utility based on the faces.in file, you could probably write an equivalent in Python just as easily.

Answer 2

The smiley program was posted to the comp.sources.misc Usenet newsgroup multiple times. Here is the description from the Volume 20, Issue 73 posting:

Submitted-by: DaviD W. Sanderson
Posting-number: Volume 20, Issue 73
Archive-name: smiley/part01
Supersedes: smiley: Volume 18, Issue 82

smiley(1) is a "smiley server" I wrote for my own pleasure. Its list of smileys is more comprehensive than any other I have seen; it subsumes all the smiley lists I have ever seen posted to the net.

This version has more than a hundred more smileys than version 2, and a more informative -V switch. Keep those smileys coming!

DaviD W. Sanderson (dws@cs.wisc.edu)