XPANEX(6)

🦋 xpanex(6) — Games Manual 🦋

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about xpanex — a whole X widget that is genuinely iconic and also lowkey a menace to your free time. it's from the Games Manual, it's giving 1980s toy energy, and yes, it will eat your afternoon. no cap. 💅

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💖 NAME 💖

xpanex — the Panex X widget. that's it, that's the name, she's simple like that. ✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

the way you summon her:

/usr/games/xpanex [-geometry
[{width}][x{height}][{+-}{xoff}[{+-}{yoff}]]] [-display [{host}]:[{vs}]]
[-[no]mono] [-[no]{reverse|rv}] [-{foreground|fg} {color}]
[-{background|bg} {color}] [-pyramid{0|1} {color}] [-tile {color}]
[-frame {color}] [-[no]stippleFrame] [-delay msecs] [-[no]sound]
[-moveSound {filename}] [-{font|fn} {fontname}] [-tiles {int}] [-{mode
{int}|hanoi|algorithme|panex}] [-userName {string}] [-scoreFile
{filename}] [-scores] [-version]

that's a lot of flags, i know, but we'll go through every single one together. we don't skip. skipping is not the vibe. 🫶

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🧚 DESCRIPTION 🧚

✨ Panex ✨

so Panex is a grooved sliding tile puzzle, created by Toshio Akanuma and manufactured by the Tricks Co., Ltd of Tokyo, Japan (a Magic Company) back in the 1980's. the mathematicians over at Bell Laboratories did the math and calculated the number of moves to be 27,564 to 31,537. like. excuse me. 😭

it came in two varieties:

• one with a magenta and an orange pyramid of order 10 on silver tiles
• the gold version, where pieces of each color look alike (i.e. no pyramid is drawn on them) — and ngl bestie, that one is a little harder 🙈

the goal? simply exchange the 2 piles. that's it. that's the whole dream. and a key little rule: pieces with smaller trapazoids cannot go down as far as pieces with bigger trapazoids. remember that, it matters. ⭐

🗼 The Tower of Hanoi 🗼

the original Tower of Hanoi puzzle is the invention of Edouard Lucas and was sold as a toy in France in 1883. and the legend of the 64 disks in the great temple of Benares of the god Brahma? also his invention. he was doing the most, honestly. 💀

the goal here is to move the pile from the left side to the right most column. and unlike panex, a large trapazoid cannot go on top of a smaller one — but pieces always fall to the bottom. gravity said what it said. 🌈

🔮 The original Algorithme 6 🔮

okay so the original Algorithme 6 is 2 stacks of 3 wooden spheres on 2 of 3 posts. the spheres come in 3 different sizes. the goal is to swap the spheres using the posts — without putting a bigger sphere on a smaller one and without exceeding the size of the post. it was created and produced by Patrick Farvacque around 1997. 🎀

the puzzle presented here has a simpler solution because the tiles are all the same height — that's a 39 move solution as opposed to 66. slay, honestly. ✨

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👑 FEATURES 👑

okay this is the fun part, this is the group chat. 💬

• press "mouse-left" button to move a tile in the top tile of a column. release "mouse-left" button on another column to move the tile to that column. it will not move if blocked. 🚫
• click "mouse-right" button, or press "C" or "c" keys, to clear the puzzle. 🧹
• press "G" or "g" keys to read (get) a saved puzzle. 📖
• press "W" or "w" keys to save (write) a puzzle. 💾
• press "U" or "u" keys to undo a move. ↩️
• press "R" or "r" keys to redo a move. ↪️
• press "S" or "s" keys to auto-solve. unfortunately, its only implemented from the starting position. 😭 (she's trying her best)
• press "M" or "m" keys to switch between Hanoi (one pyramid column), Algorithme, and Panex, (each has two pyramid columns) modes — they each have different rules. 🎛️
  • in Hanoi, one cannot place larger trapezoid on a smaller trapezoid. here the goal is to move the pile from the left peg to the rightmost peg.
  • Algorithme is similar, here we must exchange tiles and we are limited by the size of the stack. a move from stack 1 to stack 3 and vice-versa when stack 2 is full.
  • in Panex, a tile cannot go lower that its initial starting point. here again, 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 ">" or "." keys to speed up the movement of tiles. 💨
• press "<" or "," keys to slow down the movement of tiles. 🐌
• press "@" key to toggle the sound. 🔊
• press "Esc" key to hide program. 🙈
• press "Q", "q", or "CTRL-C" keys to kill program. 💀

bestie. listen. unlike other puzzles in the collection there is no way to move pieces without drag and drop. no keyboard shortcut for moving, that's just the rules. 🫠

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

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

if there is no record of the current puzzle, it displays "NEVER noaccess". dramatic? yes. accurate? also yes. 😌

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

one bullet per flag, every single one, we do not skip, this is a safe space. 🫶

• -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 the panex window on a color screen as if it were monochrome (resource name "mono"). 🖤🤍
• -[no]{reverse|rv} — this option allows you to see the panex window in reverse video (resource name "reverseVideo"). 🔄
• -{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"). 🖌️
• -pyramid0 color — this option specifies the color of the first pyramid (resource name "pyramidColor0"). 🔺
• -pyramid1 color — this option specifies the color of the second pyramid, if it exists (resource name "pyramidColor1"). 🔻
• -tile color — this option specifies the tile color of the tiles in the panex window (resource name "tileColor"). 🟪
• -frame color — this option specifies the color of the frame (resource name "frameColor"). 🖼️
• -[no]stippleFrame — this option allows you to toggle the frame stippling (resource name "stippleFrame"). ✨
• -delay msecs — this option specifies the number of milliseconds it takes to move a tile or a group of tiles one space (1-50) (resource name "delay"). ⏱️
• -[no]sound — this option specifies if a sliding tile should make a sound or not (resource name "sound"). 🔊
• -moveSound filename — this option specifies the file for the move sound for the sliding of the tiles (resource name "moveSound"). 🎵
• -{font|fn} ontname — this option specifies the font that will be used (resource name "font"). 🔤
• -tiles int — this option specifies the number of tiles in a column (resource name "tiles"). 🧱
• -mode int — this option specifies the hanoi (0), algorithme (1), or panex (2) mode (resource name "mode"). 🎚️
• -hanoi — this option specifies the hanoi mode (resource name "mode"). 🗼
• -algorithme — this option specifies the algorithme mode (resource name "mode"). 🔮
• -panex — this option specifies the panex mode (resource name "mode"). 🧩
• -userName string — this option specifies the user name for any records made, or else it will get your login name (resource name "userName"). 🪪
• -scoreFile filename — specify an alternative score file (resource name "scoreFile"). 📁
• -scores — this option lists all the recorded scores and then exits. 🏆
• -version — this option tells you what version of xpanex you have. 👀

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🏅 RECORDS 🏅

you must clear the puzzle before a record is set — otherwise an assumption of cheating is made if it is solved after a get or an auto-solve. so. no funny business bestie, she's watching. 👀

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📝 SAVE FORMAT 📝

here's the format for the xpanex configuration, starting position, and the movement of its pieces:

mode: 0-2 <0 hanoi, 1 algorithme, 2 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.

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📚 REFERENCES 📚

the receipts, the sources, the academic slay. 🎓

• Mark Manasse & Danny Sleator of AT&T Bell Laboratories and Victor K. Wei of Bell Communications Research, Some Results on the Panex Puzzle, Murray Hill, NJ, 1985 20 pp. (unpublished).
• Vladimir Dubrovsky, Nesting Puzzles Part 1: Moving oriental towers, Quantum/Toy Store, January/February 1996 pp 55-57, 50-51.
• L. E. Horden, Sliding Piece Puzzles (Recreations in Mathematics Series), Oxford University Press 1986, pp 144, 145.
• Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, Puzzles Old & New (How to Make and Solve Them), University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1987, p 135.
• Dick Hess, Analysis of the Algorithme 6 Puzzle and its Generalisations, Cubism For Fun, July 2008 76 pp 8-13.

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🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

the whole friend group, fr fr: X(1), xcubes(6), xtriangles(6), xhexagons(6), xmlink(6), xbarrel(6), xmball(6), xpyraminx(6), xoct(6), xrubik(6), xskewb(6), xdino(6), xbevel(6), xabacus(6). 💖

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©️ COPYRIGHTS ©️

® Copyright 1996-2024, David A. Bagley

• main algorithm taken from AT&T paper above.
• thanks to Nick Baxter <nickb AT baxterweb.com> for debugging level n > 4 and vTrick. 🫶
• though most code by Rene Jansen <rene.j.jansen@bigfoot.com> is now removed, much inspiration was gained by his efforts implementing an algorithm from Quantum January/February 1996 by Vladimir Dubrovsky.

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🐛 BUG REPORTS AND PROGRAM UPDATES 🐛

send bugs (or their reports, or fixes) to the author:

David A. Bagley, <bagleyd AT verizon.net>

the latest version is currently at:

https://www.sillycycle.com/puzzles.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/strategy/

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and that's the whole manual bestie!! you ate that. go solve a 27,564 move puzzle, you absolute icon. 👑✨

version V8.8.4, dated 15 Aug 2024 — that's the source/version and date, mwah, kiss kiss, bye!! 💖🎀🦋🌸💅