Tuesday, August 14, 2018

CubeBiology basics

The biggest, heaviest tool in your workshop is probably your workbench or table—or actually the floor, since you sometimes need that to assemble larger things. You need everyone else's workshop as well, since gravitational attraction is what keeps things on your bench.

Suppose you had to assemble a structure while floating in space?

The alternative to our familiar massive approach is to grow things: build them in hand, going from one completed state to the next by a sequence of small edits.

CubeBiology builds structures with just two types of edits or 'plays': insertions and switches.




An 'n' insertion. After this play, the current edge advances by 2 steps to the upper blue one.

A 'u' insertion. After this play, the current edge advances by 2 steps to the upper blue one.

Before (after) an 's' play.

After (before) an 's' play. After this play the current edge advances by 1 step to the uppermost blue one.

The sequence of play can be recorded in a letter code consisting of 'n', 'u', 's', and positive integers (integers indicate how many extra steps the current edge should advance after completing the previous move.)

For example, one sequence of play that grows a cube:

unsnsus5s