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What does this algorithm actually do?

Joined
Aug 12, 2013
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I made some changes so that you can now have different kinds of images with a lot of parameters to fit your needs.
So now, for F(RUR'U')F'(U) you can get those images :
default:
View attachment 20109
Straight arrows (for permutations only):
View attachment 20110
No space between arrows:
View attachment 20111
No cubbies shown on border if not yellow:
View attachment 20112

You can also change sizes, thicknesses, colors, spacing etc.
I also fixed some minor issues and changed a bit the overall look and feel of the website.

@Filipe Teixeira, now Y-Perm can look like this (unset "curved arrows", set "hide grey on borders", set "spacing of arrows" to "none"):
View attachment 20113
which is more standard, I agree...

Is there anything else you would like to control in the display of the result?
this looks marvelous! congratulations for the clever solution and amazing app!

this looks stunning I might say!
1659039819570.png

can I ask a way to persist the configuration and a bbcode plugin integration so we can use this easily here on the forum?
 

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
Thanks a lot for the kind words.
All the parameters can easily be encoded into the URL, this is just some extra work to do: this is an easy way to get persistence.
Now, I have never done a bbcode plugin, so I don't know what it implies. But, as my code is javascript, the image is calculated on the client side: I am afraid this could be an issue (but once again, I have to study further the question).

I had a look to BBCode, and basically this is a way to re-write HTML. So this means that I have to generate an image, server-side, from a requested URL. But having the images generated server-side could overload my server (this is just a Raspberry I have at home)
What is the inconvenience to right-click on the image, copy it and then paste it in the forum?
You can go from here:
1659094792414.png
to here:
1659094915240.png
What do you think?
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Messages
5,083
Location
Brazil
SS Competition Results
YouTube
Visit Channel
I had a look to BBCode, and basically this is a way to re-write HTML. So this means that I have to generate an image, server-side, from a requested URL. But having the images generated server-side could overload my server (this is just a Raspberry I have at home)
What is the inconvenience to right-click on the image, copy it and then paste it in the forum?
You can go from here:
View attachment 20118
to here:
View attachment 20119
What do you think?
I think that's reasonable. :D

And when you have a time will you take a look on a way for the user to save his configs?
 

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
As per request, beta 1.3 of my Formula Analyzer is now available, with display options saved locally (until you clear your cache).
As usual, feedback is welcome.
Enjoy! :)
[EDIT June 31, 2022] In beta 1.4 the implementation of the saved options is now less "quick and dirty" : the "Display Options" section shows properly what are the selected options, whether they come from the default settings or they are your own saved choices.
 
Last edited:

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
Hello again,

After some discussions on how to name ELL and CLL algorithms, I have added them into the database. There are now 138 families of algorithms (recognition of the cases to solve), with 273 formulas (examples of algorithms to solve the case).
The display options layout has been totally redesigned. I added new options, one of them being rounded corners for the facets of the cubies. This can give this kind of result:
1660234976161.png
I have improved the recognition of the cases (they can now appear on any face, not only the Up one).
As soon as you check the database for similar algorithms, the previous algorithm is recognized as "CLL E6", "EOLL bar shape", "OLL 45 T-shape" for instance.

I still have some issues with AUF and the initial and final cube rotations (it works, but sometimes it lacks cancellations).
But overall I achieved the goals I initially had: first being able to recognize and categorize any algorithm acting on the last layer, and second being able to find some algorithms that do more modifications or less modifications than a given last layer algorithm.

Next steps will be to fix the AUF and cancellation issues, add more presets and enhance the user interface, but this will not be before September.
 

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
Hello,

After a long period without any updates, I am happy to release the version 1.6 of Formula Analyzer. I think I solved most of the issues I had with move cancellation when the alg to recognize is not seen from the same point of view as the one stored in the database.
There also now more options to display the last layer (pink means well positioned but not necessarily well oriented, and you can select what to display - nothing, orientation, position or all - independently for edges and corners: check the map on this post to see what can be achieved).

Example: the effect of M' U L2 B2 L U R' U2 L U' M R U' can be shown like this:
1665950753976.png
the pink meaning that the position of the edges are unchanged (even if in this case they are all flipped).

And I added two new buttons: one to clean the formula (mostly removes the parentheses) and one to invert the formula.
As a reminder, Formula Analyzer can recognize: OLL, PLL, CLL, ELL, EOLL, OCLL and COLL, wherever the last layer is positioned (Up, Down, Left, Right, Front or Back) and find same or similar algs from its own (limited) database.
Do not hesitate to give feedback.
 

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
Thank you Lucas. The 3 cube representations are hardcoded, unfortunately, but perhaps one day, an alg acting only on Up and Front face will show only those faces (it only works for Up-Right currently).

Regarding the tools you mentioned, I will try in a near future to add more explanations on the content of the page itself rather than adding new features: how to input formulas (there is a "auto-simplify" so FFRRR becomes F2R' automatically), how you can select a piece of formula to see its effect, the meaning of the different lines in the "red" table (in particular the permutation notation), and perhaps even how I choose the position of the arrows in the cube representation.
Everything has been modified several times, and for instance "show yellow color" has become "show top color" and now it is "show orientation": so things that were obvious at the beginning are perhaps less obvious now.

PS: I have checked Twizzle today (great and huge work, indeed), and it is interesting to see how my latest modifications ("clean" and "invert") are the same as your "Simplify" and "Invert" (well, I did not know Twizzle, but I was a little bit more familiar with alg.cubing.net, so it is perhaps not a coincidence :)).
 

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
I've just released version 1.7 of Formula Analyzer.

As previously said, I wanted to add a help page to better explain what features are available. You will find its link on top of the main page (the website has only 3 pages, the link is actually on the 3 of them).
You will find there a lot of explanations on what you can do (all the conventions for entering an algorithm, all the options to display the cube and more) and also what you can obtain (more details on the different lines of the "red table", in particular).

I took advantage of this addition to deeply modify the formula parser. Not only the presentation is more user-friendly (with spaces separating each rotations), but it now accept negative exponents (or primes) for sequences of moves between parentheses.
The main difficulty, from a programming point of view, is that the same function is used to parse the input on-the-fly and to parse the copy-pasted formulas (but I guess very few people are interested into the implementation details ;)).

I am convinced there are a lot of typos or English mistakes in the new page. Do not hesitate to report them to me.
Thanks.
 
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MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
A short message to let you now two new features of Formula Analyzer version 1.8. In addition to the "invert" button that allows you to revert an alg, you now have two buttons, "sym LR" and "sym FB", to transform an alg into a new one:
  • "sym LR" makes a Left-Righ symmetry. It can be useful to change a right-handed alg into a left-handed alg (and vice-versa).
  • "sym FB" makes a Front-Back symmetry. It is mainly aimed to RU algs (or RUL or RUD). For instance, it will find Gc perm from Ga perm or Gd perm from Gb perm.
The other changes are mainly cosmetic.
 

MagicVince

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
53
Location
Paris (France)
Hello all, version 1.9 of Formula Analyzer has been released. There are two minor enhancements, but I wanted to detail them a little bit.

First, the input box now accept i for primes for instance Fi instead of F'.
So, all these algs, when copied and pasted or even when typed on-the-fly, are interpreted as F R U' R' U' R U R' F'
  • FRU'R'U'RUR'F' (regular prime, no spaces)
  • FRU’R’U’RUR’F’ (curved prime)
  • FRUiRiUiRURiFi (i instead of prime)
  • FRU-R-U-RUR-F- (minus instead of prime)
  • FRU-1R-1U-1RUR-1F-1 (minus one instead of prime, can happen for instance if -1 is in superscript)
  • F+R+U-R-U-R+U+R-F- (plus for clockwise, minus for counterclockwise)
  • F+1R+1U-1R-1U-1R+1U+1R-1F-1 (+1 for clockwise, -1 for counterclockwise)
  • FRUUURRRUUURURRRFFF (repeat the name of the face as many times as there are quarter of turns ex: RR for R2 or FFF for F', sometime this is easier to type)
  • F1R1U3R3U3R1U1R3F3 (indicate the number of quarter of turns: 1 for clockwise, 2 for half-turn, 3 for counterclockwise)
  • F5 R9 U7 RRR U-5 R5 U+ Ri F23 (any combination of above, including large number of quarter of turns, particularly useless ;))
Parentheses and dots are preserved unless you "clean" the formula.

Second, the "sym LR", "sym FB" and "invert" buttons now preserve the parentheses of the input alg, so they are working on the formula rather than on its result.
For instance, the inverse of ((R' D R D')2 U)3 is now (U' (D R' D' R)2)3 (before it was U' D R' D' R D R' D' R U' D R' D' R D R' D' R U' D R' D' R D R' D' R). Of course, if you press the "clean" button, you will got the same result as before.
Note that if you paste R' U L' U2 R U' L R' U L' U2 R U' L it will remain unchanged, but adding parentheses and pasting (R' U L' U2 R U' L)(R' U L' U2 R U' L) will result in (R' U L' U2 R U' L)2 instead. So the parser is always trying to find parentheses with same content in order to aggregate them. Once again, the "clean" button will give you back the first longer notation.

As always, feedbacks are welcome.
 
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