GNU Rubik

Running the Program

Invoke Rubik, by typing its name rubik into a command line. Or you can set up a window manager menu, or file manager application, to run it. Whatever the chosen method of starting Rubik, it must have access to a display with which it can render its images. Being an inherently graphic program, it won't do much otherwise.

Rubik accepts all the standard X resource overrides such as -geometry wwxhh+xx+yy as well as all those specific to the program itself. See section Options.

What it Does

Rubik is graphic, in both its display, and its interface. User interactions are immediately made visible on the display.

Configuration

Options

The following options may be specified on the command line at invocation. You can access some of these parameters from a menu whilst the program is running.

-z n

--size=n

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

-a m

--animation=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

--solved

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

-h

--help

Display a help message and exit.

-v

--version

Display version number and then exit.

Resources

Rubik uses the Athena widget set. Any widget's resource may be set to control menu labels, background colours etc. In addition, the following application resources set the colors of the cube faces:

! Colours of the cube faces

! resource    default
! 
rubik.color0: Red
rubik.color1: Green
rubik.color2: Blue
rubik.color3: Cyan
rubik.color4: Magenta
rubik.color5: Yellow

Examining the Cube

You may view any aspect of the cube, by using the arrow keys to rotate the entire object.

Manipulating the Cube

To manipulate the cube, you need to select a block to move, and a direction to turn it. Place the mouse cursor on a block to select it, then move the cursor against the edge of the block towards the direction you want to turn. Click Button 1 when you're ready to turn make the move. At all times a circular indicator shows which way the slice will rotate.

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