ABACUS(1)

NAME
xabacus - Abacus X widget

SYNOPSIS
xabacus
 [-geometry [{width}][x{height}][{+-}{xoff}[{+-}{yoff}]]] [-display [{host}]:[{vs}]] [-[no]mono] [-[no]{reverse|rv}] [-{foreground|fg} {color}] [-{background|bg} {color}] [-{border|bd} {color}] [-rail {color}] [-bead {color}] [-rails {int}] [-spaces {int}] [-base {int}] [-tnumber {int}] [-bnumber {int}] [-tfactor {int}] [-bfactor {int}] [-[no]torient] [-[no]borient] [-delay msecs] [-[no]demo] [-[no]script] [-demopath {path}] [-demofont {fontname}] [-demofg {color}] [-demobg {color}]

DESCRIPTION
This is an implementation of the classic Chinese abacus. The device has two decks. Each deck, separated by a beam, normally has 13 rails on which are mounted beads. Each rail on the top deck contains 2 beads, and each rod on the bottom deck contains 5 beads. Each bead on the upper deck has a value of five, while each bead on the lower deck has value of one. Beads are considered counted, when moved towards the beam separating the decks. There are books on how to use an abacus, but basically all it does is add and subtract, the rest you have to do in you head. There are techniques like using your thumb and forefinger which does not apply with mouse entry. Also with multiplication, one can carry out calculations on different parts of the abacus, here it is nice to have a long abacus. This device has two decks ("new & improved" models have auxilliary decks stacked above the principal decks that enable multiplication, division and square-root (honest!) computations to be performed with equal ease as addition and subtraction). Check out http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/ to find out more.

FEATURES
Click "mouse-left" button on a bead you want to move. The beads will shift themselves to vacate the row and column that was clicked.

Click "mouse-right" button, or press "C" or "c" keys to clear the abacus.

Press "I" or "i" keys to increment the number of rails.

Press "D" or "d" keys to decrement the number of rails.

Press "Q", "q", or "CTRL-C" keys to kill program.

The abacus may be resized. Beads will reshape depending on the room they have. Demo Mode: In this mode, the abacus is controlled by the program. When started with the demo option, a second window is presented that should be placed directly below the abacus-window. Descriptive text, and user prompts are displayed in this window. Pressing 'q' during the demo will quit it. Clicking the left mouse-button with the pointer in the window will restart the demo (beginning of current lesson).

OPTIONS

-geometry {+|-}X{+|-}Y
    This option sets the initial position of the abacus window (resource name "geometry").

-display host:dpy
    This option specifies the X server to contact.

-[no]mono
    This option allows you to display on a color screen as if monochrome (resource name "mono").

-[no]{reverse|rv}
    This option allows you to see the abacus window in reverse video (resource name "reverse").

-{foreground|fg} color
    This option specifies the foreground of the abacus window (resource name "foreground").

-{background|bg} color
    This option specifies the background of the abacus window (resource name "background").

-{border|bd} color
    This option specifies the foreground of the border of the beads (resource name "borderColor").

-bead color
    This option specifies the foreground of the beads (resource name "beadColor").

-rails int
    This option specifies the number of rails (resource name "rails").

-spaces int
    This option specifies the number of spaces (resource name "spaces").

-base int
    This option specifies the base used (default is base 10) (resource name "base").

-tnumber int
    This option specifies the number of beads on top (resource name "topNumber").

-bnumber int
    This option specifies the number of beads on bottom (resource name "bottomNumber").

-tfactor int
    This option specifies the multiply factor for the beads on top (resource name "topFactor").

-bfactor int
    This option specifies the multiply factor for the beads on bottom (resource name "bottomFactor").

-[no]torient
    This option specifies the orientation of the beads on top (resource name "topOrient").

-[no]borient
    This option specifies the orientation of the beads on bottom (resource name "bottomOrient").

-delay msecs
    This option specifies the number of milliseconds it takes to move a bead or a group of beads one space (resource name "delay").

-[no]demo
    This option specifies to run in demo mode.

-[no]script
    This option specifies to log application to /fIstdout, every time the user clicks to move the beads. The output is a set of deck, rail, and beads added or subtracted, and then this can be edited and used to create new demos (resource name "script").

-demopath path
    This option specifies the path for the demo, possibly /usr/local/lib (resource name "demoPath"). It initially looks for Lesson1.cmd. If it finds that, then looks for Lesson2.cmd, etc. -demofont fontstring This option specifies the font for the explantory text that appears in the secondary window, during the demo. The default font is 18 point Times-Roman (-*-times-*-r-*-*-*-180-*). The alternate font is 8x13.

-demofg color
    This option specifies the foreground of the abacus demo window (resource name "demoForeground").

-demobg color
    This option specifies the background of the abacus demo window (resource name "demoBackground").

SEE ALSO

X(1), xrubik(6), xskewb(6), xdino(6), xpyraminx(6), xoct(6), xmball(6), xmlink(6), xpanex(6), xcubes(6), xtriangles(6), xhexagons(6)

COPYRIGHTS

® Copyright 1994-99, David Albert Bagley

Luis Fernandes, <elf@ee.ryerson.ca> wrote an independent program (xabacus 1.00) with a demo mode and postscript file. I tried, with his permission, to take the best features of both into one program with xabacus-5.5.

BUG REPORTS AND PROGRAM UPDATES

Send bugs (or their reports, or fixes) to the author:
    David Albert Bagley,    <bagleyd@tux.org>

The latest version is currently at:
    ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/tux/bagleyd/xabacus
    ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications