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}] [-frame {color}] [-rail {color}] [-bead
{color}] [-rails {int}] [-[no]slot] [-[no]diamond] [-
[no]vertical] [-{chinese|japanese|korean|roman|russian}] [-
base {int}] [-displayBase {int}] [-[no]romanNumerals] [-
[no]sign] [-[no]quarter] [-tnumber {int}] [-bnumber {int}]
[-tfactor {int}] [-bfactor {int}] [-tspaces {int}] [-bspaces
{int}] [-[no]torient] [-[no]borient] [-delay msecs] [-
[no]sound] [-bumpSound {filename}] [-moveSound {filename}]
[-[no]demo] [-[no]script] [-demopath {path}] [-demofont
{fontname}] [-demofg {color}] [-demobg {color}] [-version]
DESCRIPTION
This is an implementation of the classic Chinese abacus
(Saun-pan) which has its origins in the 12th century.
The device has two decks. Each deck, separated by a parti-
tion, normally has 13 rails on which are mounted beads.
Each rail on the top deck contains 1 or 2 beads, and each
rod on the bottom deck contains 4 or 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 partition separating the decks, i.e.
to add a value of one a bead in the bottom deck is moved up
and to add a value of 5 a bead in the top deck is moved
down.
The basic operations of the abacus are addition and subtrac-
tion. Multiplication can be done by mentally doing the mul-
tiplications while adding up the intermediate results.
Division would be similar where the intermediate results are
subtracted. 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.
The pre-WWII Japanese abacus (Soroban) (or Korean Supan) is
similar to the Chinese abacus but has only one bead per rail
on the top deck. The later Japanese abacus was further sim-
plified to have only 4 beads per rail on the bottom deck.
The Roman hand-abacus predates the Chinese abacus and is
very similar to the later Japanese abacus, but seems to have
fallen out of use with the Fall of the Roman Empire (at
least 3 are in existence). The Roman abaci are brass plates
where the beads move in slots. In addition to the normal 7
columns of beads, they generally have 2 special columns on
the right side. In two examples: the first special column
was for 12ths (12 uncia (ounces) = 1 as) and had one extra
bead in the bottom deck. Also the last column was a combi-
nation of halves, quarters, and thirds of an ounce and had
no slot in the top deck and 4 beads at the bottom (beads did
not have to come to the top to be counted but at one of 3
marked points where the top bead was for halves, 1 for quar-
ters, and the bottom 2 for thirds). In another surviving
example: the 2 special columns were switched and the combi-
nation column was broken into 3 separate slots.
The Russian abacus was invented in the 17th century, here
the beads are moved from right to left (currently the
xabacus can not be oriented that way and one has to move the
beads down). It has colored beads in the middle for ease of
use. Quarters represent 1/4 Rubles and are only present
historically on the Russian abacus (Schoty). Some of the
older Schoty have a extra place for the 1/4 Kopek (quarter
percent) as well as the 1/4 Ruble (quarter).
The signed bead is an invention of the author and is not
present on any historical abacus (to his knowledge) and is
used to represent negatives. "New & Improved" abacus models
have two auxiliary decks stacked above the principal deck
that enable multiplication, division, square-root, and
cube-root computations to be performed with equal ease as
addition and subtraction.
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 "O" or "o" keys to toggle the demo mode.
Press "I" or "i" keys to increment the number of rails.
Press "D" or "d" keys to decrement the number of rails.
Press "F" or "f" keys to switch between Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Roman, and Russian formats.
Press "V" or "v" keys to toggle vertical Russian orienta-
tion.
Press "M" or "m" keys to toggle Roman Numerals.
Press "S" or "s" keys to toggle the availability of sign
bead.
Press "U" or "u" keys to toggle the availability of quarter
beads.
Press ">" or "." keys to speed up the movement of beads.
Press "<" or "," keys to slow down the movement of beads.
Press "@" key to toggle the sound.
Press "Esc" key to hide program.
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").
-frame color
This option specifies the foreground of the frame
(resource name "frameColor").
-rail color
This option specifies the foreground of the rails
(resource name "railColor").
-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").
-[no]slot
This option allows you to have either slots or rails
(resource name "slot").
-[no]diamond
This option allows you to have either diamond or
round beads (resource name "diamond").
-chinese
This option specifies the format on the abacus
(resource name "format") to "Chinese" for the
Chinese Saun-pan.
-japanese
This option specifies the format on the abacus
(resource name "format") to "Japanese" for the
Japanese post-WWII Soroban. This is also similar to
the Roman Hand Abacus.
-korean This option specifies the format on the abacus
(resource name "format") to "Korean" for the Korean
Supan or Japanese pre-WWII Soroban.
-roman This option specifies the format on the abacus
(resource name "format") to "Roman" for the Roman
Hand Abacus, note beads move in slots. To complete,
specify romanNumerals".
-russian
This option specifies the format on the abacus
(resource name "format") to "Russian" for the Rus-
sian Schoty. To complete, specify quarter".
-other This option specifies the format on the abacus
(resource name "format") to "Other". This option
specifies a format that is more configurable by
using resources, since there are few rules to govern
its behavior.
-base int
This option specifies the base used on abacus
(default is base 10) (resource name "base"). By
default, one has to set the format mode to not be
Other for this to work (unless you know what you are
doing).
-displayBase int
This option specifies the base displayed (default is
base 10) (resource name "displayBase"). If this is
different then "base" then it is implemented using
"long long" and the calculation is limited by its
bounds. Also the fractional part does not scale
with the "displayBase" so if the "displayBase" is
greater than the "base" it looses some precision.
Also no rounding is done.
-[no]vertical
This option allows you to set the abacus to allow a
Russian orientation (resource name "vertical").
-[no]romanNumerals
This option allows you to set the abacus to allow
Roman Numerals (resource name "romanNumerals").
Roman Numerals above 3999 are normally represented
with bars on top, due to ASCII constraints this is
represented instead in lower case (historically case
was ignored). Roman Numerals above 3,999,999 were
not represented historically. Roman numerals change
with displayBase in an "experimental" way.
-[no]sign
This option allows you to set the abacus to allow
negatives (resource name "sign").
-[no]quarter
This option allows you to set the abacus to allow
quarters (resource name "quarter").
-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").
-tspaces int
This option specifies the number of spaces on top
(resource name "topSpaces").
-bspaces int
This option specifies the number of spaces on bottom
(resource name "bottomSpaces").
-[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]sound
This option specifies if a sliding bead should make
a sound or not (resource name "sound").
-bumpSound filename
This option specifies the file for the bump sound
(resource name "bumpSound").
-moveSound filename
This option specifies the file for the move sound
(resource name "moveSound").
-[no]demo
This option specifies to run in demo mode. In this
mode, the abacus is controlled by the current lesson
(resource name "demo"). When started with the demo
option, a window contains 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). The
demo uses Abacus1.les for the first Chinese Abacus
lesson, Abacusjp1.les for the first Japanese (and
Roman) Abacus lesson, Abacusko1.les for the Korean
Abacus, and Abacusru1.les for the Russian Abacus.
-[no]script
This option specifies to log application to stdout,
every time the user clicks to move the beads
(resource name "script"). The output is a set of
deck, rail, beads added or subtracted, and the
number of text lines (4). This can be edited to add
text to the lesson and used as a new demo keeping
the generated numbers and the number of lines con-
stant. If you want to add a "do nothing", the first
line generated is an example of that. For example:
"xabacus -script > Abacus5.les"
-demopath path
This option specifies the path for the demo, possi-
bly something like /usr/share/games/xabacus
(resource name "demoPath"). It initially looks for
Abacus1.les. If it finds that, it will later look
for Abacus2.les, etc.
-demofont fontstring
This option specifies the font for the explanatory
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").
-version
This option tells you what version of xabacus you
have.
REFERENCES
Luis Fernandes http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/
Lee Kai-chen, How to Learn Lee's Abacus, 1958, 58 pages.
Abacus Guide Book, 57 pages.
Georges Ifrah, The Universal History of Numbers, Wiley Press
2000, pp 209-211, 288-294.
Review of the above: http://www.ams.org/notices/200201/rev-
dauben.pdf
David Eugene Smith, History of Mathematics Volume II, Dover
Publications, Inc 1958, pp 156-195.0
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
(Reg.) Copyright 1994-2005, 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. Also I had help with some of the
abacus in the Java version by Sarat Chandran,
<aratcmahadevan@yahoo.com> and some of these ideas were
ported back into this X version.
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://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/apps/math