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NAME

       gnubik -  an interactive, graphic Magic cube program.

SYNOPSIS

       gnubik [window_system_options] [-hvs]  [-z n]  [-a m]

DESCRIPTION

       This is a program which displays a 3 dimensional image of a magic cube,
       as introduced to the world by its Hungarian inventor, Erno Rubik.   The
       user  rotates the blocks of the cube, and attempts to solve the puzzle,
       by moving all the blocks to their correct positions  and  orientations,
       resulting in a cube with a single colour on each face.

OPERATION

       The user interacts with the program in the following ways:

   Viewing the Cube
       The  viewing  position  may be altered using the arrow keys or by using
       the mouse.  The left and right arrow keys rotate  the  cube  about  the
       vertical  axis.   The  up  and  down  keys  rotate  the  cube about the
       horizontal axis.  Holding down the shift key whilst pressing  the  left
       and right arrow keys rotates the cube about the z axis.

       To  rotate  the  cube  using the mouse, hold down button 1 and move the
       mouse anywhere on the window.  If your mouse has a  scroll  wheel,  you
       can use this to rotate the cube about the z axis.

   Performing Rotations
       Rotations are performed using the mouse.  To manipulate the cube, place
       the mouse cursor on a square in the cube, against the edge  facing  the
       direction you want to move, and click button 1.

       The mouse cursor will indicate the direction of rotation.

OPTIONS

       The  following  options  may  be  specified  on  the  command  line  at
       invocation.

       -z n   Draws a cube of dimension n, where n is positive.   The  default
              value of n is 3.

       -a m   When  rotating parts of the cube, show m intermediate positions.
              The default for this value is 2.  Setting  to  a  higher  value,
              will  give  smoother  animations,  but  will slow down the whole
              program.

       -s     Starts with the cube already solved.  By default, it starts in a
              random position.

       -h     Display a help message and exit.

       -v     Display version number and then exit.

IMPLEMENTATION

       The  code  for  gnubik  was written in ANSI compliant C, using the Mesa
       graphics library, and the Gtk+ library.  As such, it should be easy  to
       generate  a version for any system complying with these standards.  The
       program was developed on a GNU/Linux platform running XFree86.

BUGS

       The rendering process is  slow  -  especially  over  a  network,  since
       display  lists aren’t currently used.  The entire image is re-rendered,
       during each refresh, regardless of which components have changed  their
       appearance.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1998 John Darrington.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published  by  the
       Free  Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
       option) any later version.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it  will  be  useful,  but
       WITHOUT   ANY   WARRANTY;   without   even   the  implied  warranty  of
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR  A  PARTICULAR  PURPOSE.   See  the  GNU
       General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.