alg.cubing.net

[Lucas Garron]

It's time to follow up alg.garron.us with:

http://alg.cubing.net/

​

There are a few reasons for this. The main one is that alg.garron.us is based on Java applets, which many browsers (rightfully) refuse to run these days.
2.5 years ago I started writing twisty.js to handle the animations, and have recently gotten alg.cubing.net to the "beta" stage. There are still a few visual glitches, and it's a little inefficient right now, but it's pretty much working. The wiki alg links already point to alg.cubing.net, and eventually all alg.garron.us URLs will be rerouted.

A few benefits over alg.garron.us include:

• The view updates automatically (no need to press a "View" button).
• Continuous playback (you can grab the slider and stop halfway through a move!)
• A larger display and fullscreen mode.
• Support for larger cubes. (More puzzles are coming.)
• Move counts and a few alg manipulation tools.
• It works on your smartphone!
• Plans to support alg/reconstruction playbacks inside [ALG] tags on speedsolving.com
• Open source! I want to make it easy for other people to add features (e.g. new puzzles).

I thought I'd start there. Is there anything you'd like to see? Anything badly broken? Any cool ideas I haven't thought about?

 

[Lucas Garron]

Some sample links:

 

[RageCuber]

PERFECT! I'm sure this will help!

 

[cubernya]

Looks great! Quick question, do the URLs have the same syntax as alg.garron.us? Just wondering, since I can update RPG.

Another bonus: works on phones

 

[Lucas Garron]

Looks great! Quick question, do the URLs have the same syntax as alg.garron.us? Just wondering, since I can update RPG.

Nope, some parameters were renamed. I haven't written coded the exact remapping yet, but you can see a translation here.

In any case, I hope to have full functionality to supersede RPG stats some day. ;-)

 

[cubernya]

Nope, some parameters were renamed. I haven't written coded the exact remapping yet, but you can see a translation here.

In any case, I hope to have full functionality to supersede RPG stats some day. ;-)

What are you planning on doing/making? Feel free to rip code if you want (it isn't the prettiest, but it works)

 

[Bhargav777]

Awesome. Works smooth on smart phones too! Thanks Lucas!!

 

[stoic]

Looks amazing. And it works on iOS which is awesome.
Oh, and...17x17x17?!!
Gj

 

[EMI]

That's good, my browser also refused Java. I already saw Brest use it for the 8x8, and I tried it out for my own 4x4 reconstruction. The only thing I didn't quite like is that double turns seem a bit fast. Other than that, it's really awesome.

 

[Renslay]

If I write:
[R, U]

Then the play button does R U reset R U reset R U reset... continuously. The "expand" button solves it (replace it with R U R' U'), but I fail to see why couldn't it work in a proper way.
The same with [R: U].

 

[Tao Yu]

This is really nice. I like the move counts and the "End Solved" setting.

If I write:
[R, U]

Then the play button does R U reset R U reset R U reset... continuously. The "expand" button solves it (replace it with R U R' U'), but I fail to see why couldn't it work in a proper way.
The same with [R: U].

Same also happens with stuff like (R U)6.

 

[Lucas Garron]

What are you planning on doing/making? Feel free to rip code if you want (it isn't the prettiest, but it works)

The only thing I didn't quite like is that double turns seem a bit fast. Other than that, it's really awesome.

Both of these have the same answer. Support for move timing!

x y' // inspection
F R D L F // cross
U R U' R' d R' U R @1.53s // 1st pair
y U2' R' U' R // 2nd pair
U L U' L' d R U' R' // 3rd pair
y' U' R U R' U R U' R' @3.69s // 4th pair (OLS)
R2' U' R' U' R U R U R U' R U2' @5.22s // PLL

If there are timing marks, this will scale the total animation length of each segment.
Within those, longer turns will animate slower.

If I write:
[R, U]

Then the play button does R U reset R U reset R U reset... continuously. The "expand" button solves it (replace it with R U R' U'), but I fail to see why couldn't it work in a proper way.
The same with [R: U].

I'm trying to do something fancy with playback (the actual input is highlighted during animation), but it's currently not perfect. I've gone ahead and disabled it for algs with commutators until I figure out something better.

 

[cubernya]

Both of these have the same answer. Support for move timing!

x y' // inspection
F R D L F // cross
U R U' R' d R' U R @1.53s // 1st pair
y U2' R' U' R // 2nd pair
U L U' L' d R U' R' // 3rd pair
y' U' R U R' U R U' R' @3.69s // 4th pair (OLS)
R2' U' R' U' R U R U R U' R U2' @5.22s // PLL

If there are timing marks, this will scale the total animation length of each segment.
Within those, longer turns will animate slower..

Interesting. So this would allow us to (basically) have reconstructions shown at full speed?
And by the way: I'm sure I can incorporate that into RPG

 

[AmazingCuber]

Great job Lucas! This is great, thanks!

 

[TDM]

Is there a way of using WCA notation for 4x4? (Or am I just being stupid and not seeing something obvious?)

 

[Lucas Garron]

Is there a way of using WCA notation for 4x4? (Or am I just being stupid and not seeing something obvious?)

Well, depends what you mean.

Apart from bracketed rotations, alg.cubing.net is fully compatible with the current WCA notation because it accepts Rw as an alias for r: Rw U2 x Rw U2 Rw U2Rw' U2 Lw U2 Rw' U2Rw U2 Rw' U2 Rw'

However, the "old" WCA notation from alg.garron.us is no longer supported. The old notation had one main difference: lowercase moves exist, and have a different meaning from SiGN (r in old WCA notation in means 2R in SiGN). While this can be convenient for writing 4x4x4 algs with slice moves, this makes *any* big cube alg ambiguous if it contains lowercase moves, which is just confusing for everyone.

The last Regulations with that notation were in 2010. Lowercase moves didn't really have an official use, so we removed them in the 2013 Regulations. (We kept wide turns with a "w" at the end because this explicitly avoids any ambiguity.) This had the benefit of making it compatible with SiGN, which the community is fortunately moving towards.

So: yes, alg.cubing.net supports WCA notation, but it does not support the old notation.

(Anyone could easily create a version that does, but I would consider it counter-productive.)

Also: Once alg.garron.us starts redirecting to alg.cubing.net, old "WCA notation" algs will be translated to SiGN.

 

[TDM]

Well, depends what you mean.

Apart from bracketed rotations, alg.cubing.net is fully compatible with the current WCA notation because it accepts Rw as an alias for r: Rw U2 x Rw U2 Rw U2Rw' U2 Lw U2 Rw' U2Rw U2 Rw' U2 Rw'

However, the "old" WCA notation from alg.garron.us is no longer supported. The old notation had one main difference: lowercase moves exist, and have a different meaning from SiGN (r in old WCA notation in means 2R in SiGN). While this can be convenient for writing 4x4x4 algs with slice moves, this makes *any* big cube alg ambiguous if it contains lowercase moves, which is just confusing for everyone.

The last Regulations with that notation were in 2010. Lowercase moves didn't really have an official use, so we removed them in the 2013 Regulations. (We kept wide turns with a "w" at the end because this explicitly avoids any ambiguity.) This had the benefit of making it compatible with SiGN, which the community is fortunately moving towards.

So: yes, alg.cubing.net supports WCA notation, but it does not support the old notation.

(Anyone could easily create a version that does, but I would consider it counter-productive.)

Also: Once alg.garron.us starts redirecting to alg.cubing.net, old "WCA notation" algs will be translated to SiGN.

I see. I just hate SiGN notation I guess I'll just have to learn/deal with it.

 

[unsolved]

Is there a catalog of algos, like the 4x4x4 parity wiki with so many presolved, ready-to-run links?

 

[IQubic]

Is there a catalog of algos, like the 4x4x4 parity wiki with so many presolved, ready-to-run links?

Not that I am aware of.

-IQubic

 

[Renslay]

The more I use it, the more memory it consumes. So if I put there some scramble, a solution in the move section, another scramble, different solutions, etc. (playing arond with FMC), the physical memory usage always increases, but never decreases (only if I close the webpage).

I use Win7, Chrome 33.0.1750.154 m

Funny that it did that in Firefox too with the same rate of memory consuming (Firefox 27.0.1), but it never refreshes the big screen. Normally, in Chrome, when I click somewhere in the scramble or the move section, it shows the current cube state. But in Firefox it remains the same (like it is freezed). But the play button and the other buttons work properly and shows the animation.