thisiscool.com: Triangle Puzzle

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The Triangle Puzzle^TM Help

v2.00 Win32

Welcome to The Triangle Puzzle^TM! Click here for Terms of Use.

Please choose from the help topics below:

Introduction
Playing
Installing/Uninstalling
Terms of Use
Credits
Why I Wrote This
About the Author
Sound Credits

Introduction

Thank you for choosing The Triangle Puzzle^TM, the fun, challenging animated puzzle game with hints! With versions available for Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, Linux, and PalmOS!

Be sure to visit http://www.thisiscool.com/ for tips, tricks and updates.

International users: for a translation of these instructions in your language, go to http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/ and enter the URL http://www.thisiscool.com/TPuzzleW2.htm.

Usage of this program indicates your acceptance of the Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these terms, exit the program immediately and uninstall it.

Main Contents
Playing

Playing

The Rules

The "triangle puzzle" is an inverted triangle with 15 holes. To play:

remove a starting peg from any hole
choose an arbitrary peg and the jump either horizontally or diagonally over an occupied hole into an empty hole. Here are examples of legal moves:

remove the peg you jumped over. Repeat this process until there are no moves left. The object of the game is to end up with exactly one peg.

When the animated pegs blink, one of over seventy sound snippets is played using samples of various chimes, bells, instruments and other tones. See the Sound Credits for more details.

The Program

To play the game,

single-click on the starting peg to remove
for each move, single-click on the peg to move, then single-click on the hole to jump to
click on the [Undo] and [Redo] buttons to undo/redo a move
click on [Hint] to have the program suggest a move
click on the Is there a solution from this position? checkbox to have the computer indicate whether a solution to the puzzle exists after each move you make
click on the [New Game] button to start a new game

Main Contents
Installing/Uninstalling

Installing/Uninstalling

On Win32 Machines

To install, run the setup program. To uninstall, use Add/Remove Programs from [Start Menu] > Settings > Control Panel.

Main Contents
Playing

Terms of Use

The Triangle Puzzle is a trademark of Mohan Embar, Inc.

Usage of this program indicates your acceptance of the following license conditions. If you do not agree with these terms, exit the program immediately and uninstall it.

This program comes with no warranties, either express or implied. In no event will the copyright holder be liable from any damages resulting from the use of this software.

This program is PropagandaWare. If you continue using this program seven days after the first use, you agree to visit the following websites:

You are exempt from this agreement if you do not have Internet access.

Permission is granted to any individual or institution to copy or redistribute this software provided that:

it is not altered in any way
it is not sold for profit
this copyright notice is displayed
if made available for download on a non-FTP web page, that a link be made to www.thisiscool.com whenever possible

Developed in C++ using Microsoft^® Visual C++

Main Contents

Credits

Dedicated to:

my wife Wanda, for putting up with me, and
to my father, grandfather and grandmother and their memories

Main Contents

Why I Wrote This

Technical Reasons

I wrote the Triangle Puzzle to illustrate several programming techniques (although most play the game for its own sake and couldn't care less about these techniques):

Applications can be written in such a way that they survive ports across languages and operating systems with a minimum of change (current supported languages: (Objective) C++, C#, Java, Delphi; operating systems: Win32, OS X, Linux, Windows CE, Palm OS, and any OS with a decent Java implementation.
Java isn't the only way to achieve cross-platform results, even with a non-trivial user interface. The native C++ executables share the same, sizeable codebase with only a slight amount of operating-system-specific code. What's more, the resultant executables are small and fast.

Personal Reasons

I wrote the first incarnation of the Triangle Puzzle on a TRS-80 Model III when I was 14 years old. That summer, we had gone on a family vacation to Door County, Wisconsin and I found and bought the puzzle at a gift shop. I spent that entire vacation unsuccessfully trying to solve the puzzle myself. When I got home, I typed in the BASIC version (here's the listing!) and started it running. It was churning away when my mom called out "Mohan, the pancakes are ready!" and I had to tear myself away.

When I came back upstairs, I saw SOLUTION FOUND: on my screen with a bunch of moves. My first reaction was: "Yeah right," and half-heartedly started making the moves. To my shock, the program had found a solution!

Main Contents

About the Author

Mohan Embar is one of those rare finds that has both outstanding technical and communications skills. Both an excellent mentor and developer, he has worked in a wide variety of projects, such as object-oriented billing systems, servlet frameworks and low-level UNIX printer drivers. He has both domestic and international experience with companies such as Nortwestern Mutual Life, Deluxe Data Systems, France Telecom, Société Générale, Cyco Software, and Kraft, Inc. He is fluent in English, French and Dutch and has a working knowledge of German, Spanish and Italian.

Mohan is also bilingual in C++ and Java and loves switching back and forth between the two languages, while making full use of the idioms of both. Visit the Cool Demos section at http://www.thisiscool.com/coolprogs.htm to see more cool programs written in C++, Java and other languages like Delphi and JavaScript.

Mohan Embar singlehandedly:

wrote the Java and native C++ versions of The Triangle Puzzle
authored the accompanying documentation and online help.

Is it creative and well-programmed? Is the documentation nicely written? Check out his other demos, download the source code and scrutinize it. If you like his work, you can try to hire his services if he's available. Send inquiries via the thisiscool.com Contact Page. (Contract positions only: no full-time positions, headhunters or consulting firms, please.)

Main Contents

Sound Credits

This application uses the following sound files from Freesound http://freesound.iua.upf.edu:

The Triangle PuzzleTM Help

v2.00 Win32

Introduction

Playing

The Rules

The Program

Installing/Uninstalling

On Win32 Machines

Terms of Use

Credits

Why I Wrote This

Technical Reasons

Personal Reasons

About the Author

Sound Credits

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The Triangle Puzzle^TM Help