NAME

xpanex - Panex X widget

SYNOPSIS

/usr/games/xpanex [-geometry [{width}][x{height}][{+-}{xoff}[{+-}{yoff}]]] [-display [{host}]:[{vs}]] [-[no]mono] [-[no]{reverse|rv}]

[-{foreground|fg} {color}] [-{background|bg} {color}] [-{border|bd} {color}] [-tile {color}] [-pyramid{0|1} {color}] [-tiles {int}] [-{mode {int}|hanoi|panex}] [-delay msecs] [-username {string}]

DESCRIPTION

The original Panex puzzle is from the Japanese Magic Company from the 1980's. Mathematicians at Bell Laboratories estimated the number of moves to swap 2 columns of order 10 to be 27,564 <= N <= 31,537. It came in two varieties: one with a blue and a yellow pyramid of order 10 on silver tiles; in the gold version pieces of each color look alike (i.e. no pyramid is drawn on them), this is a little harder.

The original Tower of Hanoi puzzle is the invention of Edouard Lucas and was sold as a toy in France in 1883. The legend of 64 disks in the great temple of Benares of the god Brahma is also his invention.

FEATURES

Press "mouse-left" button to move a tile the top tile in a column. Release "mouse-left" button on another column. It will not move if blocked.

Double click on "mouse-right" button or press "R" or "r" keys to reset the puzzle.

Press "M" or "m" keys to toggle between hanoi (one pyramid column) and panex (two pyramid columns) modes (they each have different rules). In Hanoi, one can not place larger trapezoid on a smaller trapezoid. Here the goal is to move the pile from the left peg to the rightmost peg. In Panex, a tile can not go lower that its initial starting point. Here the goal is to exchange the 2 piles.

Press "I" or "i" keys to increase the number of tiles.

Press "D" or "d" keys to decrease the number of tiles.

Press "S" or "s" keys to auto-solve. Unfortunately, its only implemented from the starting position.

Press "U" or "u" keys to undo last move.

Press "G" or "g" keys to get a saved puzzle.

Press "W" or "w" keys to save a puzzle.

Press "Q", "q", or "CTRL-C" keys to kill program.

Unlike other puzzles in the collection there is no way to move pieces without drag and drop.

The title is in the following format (non-motif version):

x{hanoi | panex}: <Number of rows> @ (<Number of moves>/{<Record number of moves> <username>|"NEVER noaccess"}) - <Comment>

If there is no record of the current puzzle, it displays "NEVER noaccess".

OPTIONS

-geometry {+|-}X{+|-}Y: This option sets the initial position of the panex window (resource name "geometry").
-display host:dpy: This option specifies the X server to contact.
-[no]mono: This option allows you to display on a color screen as if monochrome (resource name "mono").
-[no]{reverse|rv}: This option allows you to see the panex window in reverse video (resource name "reverse").
-{foreground|fg} color: This option specifies the foreground of the panex window (resource name "foreground").
-{background|bg} color: This option specifies the background of the panex window (resource name "background").
-{border|bd} color: This option specifies the border color of the tiles in the panex window (resource name "borderColor").
-tile color: This option specifies the tile color of the tiles in the panex window (resource name "tileColor").
-pyramid0 color: This option specifies the foreground of the first pyramid (resource name "pyramidColor0").
-pyramid1 color: This option specifies the foreground of the second pyramid, if it exists (resource name "pyramidColor1").
-tiles int: This option specifies the number of tiles in a column (resource name "tiles").
-mode int: This option specifies the hanoi (0) or panex (1) mode (resource name "mode").
-hanoi: This option specifies the hanoi mode (resource name "mode").
-panex: This option specifies the panex mode (resource name "mode").
-delay msecs: This option specifies the number of milliseconds it takes to move a tile or a group of tiles one space (resource name "delay").
-username string: This option specifies the user name for any records made or else it will get your login name (resource name "userName").

SAVE FORMAT

The format is not standard. The reason for this is that this is simple and I do not know what the standard is.

mode: 0-1 <0 hanoi, 1 panex>
tiles: 1-10 <number of tiles in a column>
moves: 0-MAXINT <total number of moves>

startingPosition: <array pairs of column and position of each tile>

This is then followed by the moves, starting from 1.

move #: <from_column> <to_column>

from_column is the top tile of the column
to_column is where that tile is moved to.

Caution: the program may crash on corrupted input.

REFERENCES

Sliding Piece Puzzles (Recreations in Mathematics Series) by L. E. Horden, Oxford University Press 1986, pp 144, 145.

Puzzles Old & New (How to Make and Solve Them) by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1987, p 135.

Quantum January/February 1996 pp 55-57, 50-51. (Author's name not present on my copy).

COPYRIGHTS

Rene Jansen <RENE.R.J.JANSEN@RCC.nl> coded it from the issue of Quantum and discovered some minor improvements. Added to xpanex with his permission.

BUG REPORTS AND PROGRAM UPDATES

Send bugs (or their reports, or fixes) to the author

David Albert Bagley, <bagleyd@tux.org>

The latest version is currently at:

ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/tux/bagleyd/xpuzzles
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/games