A quick hack of a page to show "cube" and it's ability.
First thing's first - the code is at the project summary page. You will need XParam compiled and to modify the Makefile a bit to get it compiled. You will probably also need to delete moc_panel.cc. Don't worry - if QT dev is installed, the file will be created by the makefile. Current CVS already fixes the last problem.
We would also like to extend thanks to for hosting this project.
Here are a few screenshots:
The program with ordered tesseract.
As above, after having made two of the three clicks required to make a move.
The above move completed. We can see that a plane of red stickers (balls) is now distributed among the middle panes, while
four lines of blue stickers, that were before distributed, are now merged into one plane of blue stickers on the left pane.
The exact same setup, after having rotated the tesseract a bit with the mouse.
Follows the text of the help message, as appears inside the program:
Contents:
The tesseract follows all the regular laws of a Rubik's cube, only in four dimensions. What this means is that at each step you can alter the hypercube by revolving one of its three dimensional sections.
You choose which section to revolve, and in which direction to revolve it, but be aware that there are many more legal moves in this four-dimensional cube than there are in the regular Rubik's cubes.
For visual clarity, the stickers were chosen to be ball-shaped.
You can also use the right mouse button to click and drag any of the balls representing the colored stickers on the hypercube. This will make the cube change its 3-D orientation, and will allow you to look at it at an angle, instead of head on. Sometimes this can be beneficial. However, at other times you may find that you want to look at the cube the ordinary way. Simply click 'Reset View' to bring the cube back to its original orientation.
A game can be started by pressing Mix. This will cause the cube to mix itself to an arbitrary start position, from which you can start working your way back. A counter on the top-left side of the screen will count the number of moves you will require for this.
If you wish to quit the program at any time, press Quit
By default, the Display Style is set to section.
Note that the difference between the two display styles is only appearent when the cube is moving. When the cube is motionless, both display styles will lead to the same result.
~>./cube !
you will get a complete listing of command-line options.On the command-line, Cube lets you control the initial state of both the Display Style and the Animation Mode, and also gives you control over the choice of icon to be used by the program
Cube comes with two options for an icon ('cube' and 'cube2'),
but it can also handle any other bitmap file.
Advanced Features
There is no limit to the undo capability of Cube.
The command prompt, utilizing XParam technology, can be used to specify move instructions to the tesseract.
A simple move is specified as follows:
move(pos(4,1,1,1),pos(4,1,1,3),pos(3,4,-1,-1))
That is, a move requires three position parameters. These are used in exactly the same way as the sticker selection is used to specify a move in the mouse interface. The positions themselves are four-dimensional, hence the four integer parameters.
You can specify as many moves as you like on the command-line, by separating them with space characters:
move(...) move(...) move(...)
or you can join them together, to form a single move sequnce:
[move(...), move(...), move(...)]
When undoing and redoing, move sequences are treated as a single bulk. They can also be transferred that way and manipulated. Here, are two examples:
inverse(move(...)) inverse([move(...), move(...), move(...)])
The main strength of the command prompt lies in its extendability. Try, for example, writing demo() on the command prompt. You can extend Cube in the same way. Consult the XParam User's manual for details how.
Note that the move macros receive the current state of the cube they operate on. By using the color() method of cube, it is possible to program your macros to be as smart as you want them to be.
Simply press the middle mouse button when over a sticker, and the position of that sticker will be appended to your command prompt.