The cube may be initialised to the Set, Scrambled or Retrieved state via the Cube State dialog. The Set state corresponds to a solved cube, and is a convenient starting point for developing new sequences. The Scrambled state is a disordered state that is the accepted starting point for unravelling a cube. The Retrieved state refers to a state previously stored on the user's disk or other storage medium.
The random number generator used for creating the initial Scrambled state uses a seed based on current time. Two Random objects created with the same current time value would produce a sequence that meets the basic randomness requirement but would have the same sequence of random numbers. The use of time-in millisecond seed ensures duplication does not occur. The time taken to scramble the cube would increase linearly with cube size if no change in the process is introduced. Because marked cubes are more complex (have more different states) the randomising sequence is made longer for them than for standard cubes. Because the scrambling time tends to become excessively long for marked cubes of very large size (of no interest to many users) the sequence is reduced in length for marked cubes of size greater than 49. A further reduction in the scrambling time is used when creating the scrambled state used for the Set Application Colours dialog.
In application program mode, selection of Retrieved results in a previously stored state in a text file being loaded from disk or other storage medium, provides the cube state that existed when it was last saved, either during the current session or during a previous session. the appropriate file can be found. For standard cubes with unmarked centres, the name of the text file is urvhldnn.txt (where "nn" is cube size in range 02 to MaxCubeSize). If marked cubes (in the 3 to applicable size limit) are in use, the name of the text file is either urvhldnnm.txt or urvhldnns.txt depending on option (where "nn" is the cube size value). Refer to File directory and list for more details on these text files.
For applet program mode, recovery of the contents of the previously recorded state file is done with the help of the computer's clipboard provided the user has previously stored the cube state in a directory and file of their choosing on their disk or other storage medium.
Simple size 4 cube example |
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Scrambled cube | ![]() |
Set cube | ![]() |