Message #3909

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Notation
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2018 15:53:43 -0800

I must agree with Marc. I didn’t know about the speed solving community’s convention, and that’s probably the strongest argument. Coming from computer graphics, this has been a perennial discussion. Programmers, mathematicians and artist/modelling communities overlap in interests and coordinate preferences like a Venn diagram depending upon whether you prefer to think in terms of screen space or world space. There’s general agreement to begin with +X being to the right. Everything else can cause tension, but the one compromise that everyone seems to be able to live with is making sure that +Y is always up. (Some world-space people prefer +Z up while some graphics people prefer +Y as down.) The phrase "Y is up" has therefore become a kind of touchstone. Given that, positive Z can then be chosen to produce one’s desired handedness. I have no preference on handedness, but since you prefer right-handed, that means +Z should be toward yourself.

-Melinda

On 1/2/2018 8:46 AM, Joel Karlsson joelkarlsson97@gmail.com [4D_Cubing] wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I’m planning to post a more detailed solution of the physical 2^4 but
> to do so I need some notation. I understand that my previous post on
> notation was too long and too complicated. Luckily, I have since
> realised that a simpler notation is sufficient but before I introduce
> it I need some input from you. What coordinate system do you prefer?
>
> It would be great if we could decide on one coordinate system and then
> use that as a convention. Personally, I think that the coordinate
> system should be right-handed but besides that, I can use pretty much
> any. Two great alternatives are (for the positive half axes):
> x-right, y-away from yourself, z-up
> x-right, y-up, z-toward yourself
>
> What do you think?
>
> Best regards,
> Joel