Message #279

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Suggusted Improvements to the MC5D
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:47:15 -0700

Roice Nelson wrote:
> […]
>
> > There should be a way of undoing
> > the entire macro. There could be a way of doing the inverse of a macro.
>
> You can currently do the inverse of any macro by ctrl-double-clicking
> it (vs. double-clicking it, which runs it forward).
>
> Charlie and I have talked about how we would improve undo support
> to handle macros too (and add redo support at the same time). I agree
> this is important, to help keep from getting lost when you need to
> backtrack.
>
> […]
>
> > BTW, I had noticed a pop up saying that I solved the cube while I was
> > just playing around near solved state, doing and undoing moves… this
> > seems to be an undesirable feature.
>
> Yeah, I have a heuristic of whether or not to show that message, and
> unfortunately heuristics aren’t perfect. I wanted a "reward" for
> solving, but then there is the question of how to tell the difference
> between a genuine solve and just messing around near the solved
> state. I made the criteria be not just that the puzzle is solved, but
> that there have been at least 1500 twists. But if you play around a
> lot without ever really messing it up, say by making a long macro that
> effectively does nothing and running it a bunch of times, you can
> still get the reward. Perhaps it is just better left out.
One thing I’ve wanted to mention that involves both of the above issues
is support for marks in the 5D log files. In the 4D puzzle we include
marks where macros are applied so that we can easily undo entire sets at
a time. We also place a special mark at the end of the
computer-generated scrambling moves so that we can disallow users from
undoing moves past that point. They can still hit "solve" or "reset",
but valid solutions must include intact scrambling moves. I strongly
suggest that MC5D include support for the same marks and behavior.

-Melinda