XSKEWB(6)
NAME
xskewb - Skewb X widgets
SYNOPSIS
/usr/games/xskewb [-geometry
[{width}][x{height}][{+-}{xoff}[{+-}{yoff}]]] [-display
[{host}]:[{vs}]] [-mono] [-{foreground|fg} <color>]
[-{background|bg} <color>] [-{border|bd} <color>]
[-face{0|1|2|3|4|5} <color>] [-[no]orient] [-[no]practice]
[-username {string}]
DESCRIPTION
The original puzzle has each face cut by a diamond, so
that there are 5 pieces, 4 corner pieces and one diamond
piece in the center. The was designed by Uwe Meffert and
called the Pyraminx Cube. Douglas Hofstadter later coined
it a Skewb and it stuck. The puzzle has period 3 turning
(i.e. each half turns with 120 degree intervals). The
Skewb has 2^5*3^8*6!/2 or 100,766,960 different combina-
tions (with centers oriented).
More recently, Disney released Mickey's Challenge, its a
spherical skewb with a pretty good internal mechanism.
Mickey's challenge has 2^5*3^8*6!/36 5,598,720 visually
different combinations). It also comes with a pretty neat
book. Also released is the Creative Puzzle Ball or Mef-
fert's Challenge which has 4 rings in different colors.
Mach Balls of the Hungarian Gyula Mach are similar but
they do not have a ratchet mechanism and do not turn as
easily or smoothly. One must match the 12 different sym-
bols of 4 each at the 12 intersection points.
FEATURES
Press "mouse-left" button to move a piece. Release
"mouse-left" button on a piece on the same face. (Click
on the diamonds are ignored). The pieces will then turn
towards where the mouse button was released.
Press "mouse-center", or press "P" or "p" keys to toggle
the practice mode (in practice mode the record should say
"practice"). One must double click on "mouse-center" if
the puzzle is being worked on. This is good for learning
moves and experimenting.
Click "mouse-right", or press "R" or "r" keys to randomize
(this must be done first to set a new record). One must
double click on "mouse-right" if the puzzle is being
worked on.
Press "O" or "o" keys to toggle the orient mode. One has
to orient the faces in orient mode, besides getting all
the faces to be the same color. To do this one has to get
the lines to be oriented in the same direction, this only
matters with center diamond piece. This does add complex-
ity so there are 2 sets of records.
"S" or "s" keys reserved for the auto-solver (unimple-
mented).
Press "U" or "u" keys to undo move.
Press "G" or "g" keys to get a saved puzzle.
Press "W" or "w" keys to write or save a puzzle.
Press "Q", "q", or "CTRL-C" keys to kill program.
Use the key pad, "R" keys, or arrow keys to move without
mouse clicks.
Key pad is defined for the Skewb2d as:
/ Counterclockwise
7 8 9 Upper Left, Up, Upper Right
^
4<5>6 Left, Clockwise, Right
v
1 2 3 Lower Left, Down, Lower Right
Note: Top, Left, Right, and Bottom only work when the con-
trol key is pressed and there is no analog for the
Skewb3d.
If the mouse is on a diamond, the above keys will not move
cube because the move is ambiguous. Also if the mouse is
on a triangle, not all the keys will function because the
puzzle will only rotate on the cuts, i.e. a triangle with
a Upper Left - Lower Right cut will rotate only Upper Left
& Lower Right, a triangle with a Upper Right - Lower Left
cut will rotate only Upper Right & Lower Left. Therefore,
a triangle can only move tangential to the center of the
face. No doubt this is confusing, but the physical skewb
is the same way. In fact, that is part of its appeal.
Key pad for Rubik3d, use must use your intuition (is this
a cop out or what?). The key pad is defined differently
depending on which side of the cube your mouse is pointing
at. One thing that stays the same is "5" is Clockwise and
"/" is Counterclockwise.
Use the control key and the left mouse button, keypad, or
arrow keys to move the whole cube. This is not recorded
as a turn.
The title is in the following format (non-motif version):
xskewb{2|3}d<dimension>: ( <username>|"NEVER
noaccess"|"practice"}) - <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 skewb
window (resource name "geometry").
-display host:dpy
This option specifies the X server to contact.
-mono This option allows you to access the mono mode on
a color monitor (resource name "mono").
-{foreground|fg} color
This option specifies the foreground of the skewb
window (resource name "foreground").
-{background|bg} color
This option specifies the background of the skewb
window (resource name "background").
-{border|bd} color
This option specifies the border color of the
cubelets in the skewb window (resource name "bor-
derColor").
-face{0|1|2|3|4|5} <<color>>
This option allows you to change the color of a
face (resource name "faceColorN"). In mono-mode,
color is represented as the first letter of the
color name. On the 2-D version, the faces are
ordered top to bottom and left to right on the "t"
configuration. The "+-" configuration is physi-
cally consistent with the former, so it is ordered
"0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 4". If you has two colors that
begin with the same letter you should have one in
uppercase and one in lowercase to distinguish them
in mono-mode. You can change the colors of the
faces to make a stupid cube (i.e. all White or in
mono-mode all "W"). Unfortunately, it will not
normally say its solved when its randomized. This
would be cheating.
-[no]orient
This option allows you to access the orient mode
(resource name "orient").
-[no]practice
This option allows you to access the practice mode
(resource name "practice").
-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.
Skewb2d with default colors, not randomized:
0 R Red
1 2 3 B W G Blue, White, Green
4 P Pink
5 Y Yellow
orient: 0-1 <0 false, 1 true; if 1 then lines on
cubies to be oriented>
practice: 0-1 <0 false, 1 true>
moves: 0-MAXINT <total number of moves>
startingPosition: <2 dimensional array of face and
corner position and center diamond position, each
face has 4 corner pieces and one center piece, if
orient mode then orientation number follows face
number: 0 up, 1 right, 2 down, and 3 left>
This is then followed by the moves, starting from 1.
move #: <face> <corner> <direction> <control>
Each turn is with respect to a corner on a face.
The corners start at the upper right and work clockwise.
Direction is represented as 0 upper right, 1 lower right,
2 lower left, 3 upper left, 5 clockwise, 7 counterclock-
wise, 8 up, 9 right, 10 down, and 11 left.
Control is represented as 0 or 1, 1 if the whole cube is
moved at once (here the corner does not matter), 0 if not.
The xskewb record keeper does not count a control move as
a move, but here we do.
Caution: the program may crash on corrupted input.
REFERENCES
Beyond Rubik's Cube: spheres, pyramids, dodecahedrons and
God knows what else by Douglas R. Hofstadter, Scientific
American, July 1982, pp 16-31.
Mickey's Challenge by Christoph Bandelow.
Magic Cubes 1996 Catalog of Dr. Christoph Bandelow.
SEE ALSO
X(1) xrubik(6) xdino(6) xpyraminx(6) xoct(6)
xmball(6) xmlink(6) xpanex(6) xcubes(6) xtriangles(6)
xhexagons(6) xabacus(1)
COPYRIGHTS
(R) Copyright 1994-97, David Albert Bagley
BUG REPORTS AND PROGRAM UPDATES
Send bugs (or their reports, or fixes) to the author
David Albert Bagley, lt;bagleyd@bigfoot.com
The most updated source could be found on ftp.x.org under
/contrib/games/puzzles.