NAME

xtriangles - Triangles X widget

SYNOPSIS

/usr/games/xtriangles [-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}] [-size {int}] [-base {int}] [-username {string}]

DESCRIPTION

This is basically no harder than the 15 puzzle. The 15 puzzle was originally made around 1879 (the 14-15 puzzle of Sam Loyd was made soon after). T. R. Dawson in Original Puzzles has a similar puzzle with 4 diamond- and 6 triangular-shaped pieces.

FEATURES

Click "mouse-left" button to move a tile. Clicks on spaces or clicks tiles that are not in line with the two spaces will not move the tiles. Notice one can move more than one tile at a time by clicking on the tile farthest from the spaces but in line with the spaces.

Click "mouse-right" button, or press "R" or "r" keys, to randomize the puzzle. One must double click on "mouse-right" if the puzzle is being worked on.

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

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

"S" or "s" keys reserved for the auto-solver (unimplemented).

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 the mouse.
Key pad is defined for Triangles as:
7 9 Upper Left, Upper Right ^
4< >6 Left, Right v
1 3 Bottom Left, Bottom Right

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

xtriangles: <size> @ (<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 triangles window (resource name "geometry").
-display host:dpy: This option specifies the X server to contact.
-{foreground|fg} color: This option specifies the foreground of the triangles window (resource name "foreground").
-{background|bg} color: This option specifies the background of the triangles window (resource name "background").
-{border|bd} color: This option specifies the border color of the tiles in the triangles window (resource name "borderColor").
-tile color: This option specifies the tile color of the triangles window (resource name "tileColor").
-size <int>: This option allows you to change the number of triangles in a row (resource name "sizeA").
-base int: This option specifies the base used (default is base 10) (resource name "base").
-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.

size: 1-16 <number of tiles in a row of the same orientation as the puzzle>
moves: 0-MAXINT <total number of moves>

startingPosition: <array of tile positions where 0 is the empty space for the UP triangle and -1 is the empty space for the DOWN triangle>

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

move #: <direction>

Direction is represented as 0 upper right, 1 right, 2 lower right, 3 lower left, 4 left, and 5 upper left.

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 1, 148, 149.

Puzzles Old & New (How to Make and Solve Them) by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1987, pp 126, 127.

COPYRIGHTS

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