From cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Fri Apr 9 19:43:01 1999 Return-Path: Received: from sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil (sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil [132.250.84.38]) by mc.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1-mod) with SMTP id TAA08480 for ; Fri, 9 Apr 1999 19:43:00 -0400 (EDT) Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu From: Jerry Bryan To: "Jorge E. Jaramillo" Cc: cube , Roger.Broadie@iclweb.com Subject: Cube Explorer 1.5 by Herbert Kociemba In-Reply-To: <000701be8238$8c026820$92121fc8@lucentmd> Message-Id: Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 18:04:29 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) On Thu, 08 Apr 1999 22:24:23 -0500 "Jorge E. Jaramillo" wrote: > Well done Mr. Broadie and keep up the good work, please let the list know > when you have the Windows version ready. ;-) Another alternative for Windows is Herbert Kociemba's Cube Explorer 1.5, which is easily found with Web based search engines, and which I think can also be found on the download section of the Cube-Lovers site. Cube Explorer 1.5 does not allow you to type in a maneuver directly, which I think is what you are after. But it will do something just about as good, and in some ways even better. It will read in a standard ASCII text file which contains maneuvers in standard Singmaster notation (the BFUDLR notation), and it will then show you the end product. The file can contain any (reasonable) number of maneuvers, and the program will show you the end product for each maneuver all in one fell swoop (or swell foop, if you prefer). One thing Cube Explorer 1.5 does not support that you may be looking for is to manipulate the cube and look at each intermediate position. But that's usually not what I am looking for. I am usually looking for the end product of a maneuver. (Of course, you could put each intermediate position into your ASCII text file.) You can create the ASCII text file for Cube Explorer 1.5 by typing maneuvers into the file with the text editor of your choice. But most typically I just cut and paste maneuvers out of an E-mail into the text file, and then have Cube Explorer 1.5 read the file. It's much easier and less error prone than typing the maneuvers myself. Here is a case where Cube Explorer 1.5 may be "even better". Take a Cube-Lovers message with lots of maneuvers, cut and paste the whole thing into an ASCII text file, and read the file into Cube Explorer 1.5. Instantly, you see the positions for all the maneuvers. You don't even have to worry about deleting the extraneous non-maneuver text from the E-mail. For example, take Mike Reid's lists of minimal maneuvers for highly symmetric positions, or take my lists of local maxima and put them into Cube Explorer 1.5 in this fashion. The results are quite pretty. There are many other messages in the Cube-Lovers archives with lots of pretty patterns, but these two come to mind quickly. (By the way, converting BFUDLR strings to a graphical representation of a position is an extremely useful feature of Cube Explorer 1.5, but it has several other nice features. For example, you can give it a graphical representation of a position and get back very quickly -- in a matter of seconds -- a very good suboptimal maneuver for that position.) ---------------------------------------- Jerry Bryan jbryan@pstcc.cc.tn.us