DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

Search: Section:  

TRACTORGEN(6)               DragonFly Games Manual               TRACTORGEN(6)


NAME

       tractorgen - Generates ASCII tractors


SYNOPSIS

       tractorgen [number of wheels]


DESCRIPTION

       tractorgen generates ASCII tractors using the universal tractor
       coefficient (TC). The intended audience is practical ASCII tractor
       theorists and lay people interested in abstract tractor theory.

       Before using this program, ensure that you understand the fundamental
       theorem of ASCII tractor mechanics:

       "ASCII Tractors must have at least four wheels." [1]

       Note that this theorem applies to side-on views. No useful models of
       two-sided ASCII tractors have been found, nor is there even any
       concrete proof of their existence.

       In keeping with this theorem, TRACTORGEN will politely inform the user
       if any attempt to make tractors with less than four wheels is made (by
       calling abort(3) and dumping core).

       [1] See, for example, "Introductory ASCII tractor design, vols 3-7",
       Blum&Merven, Slarken Press 1973.


OPTIONS

       number of wheels
              If no argument is given, the optimal configuration of 7 is
              generated.


USAGE

       Tractorgen takes one argument. This argument is indirectly related to
       the TC and is a cardinal enumerating the desired wheel configuration.

       For example, if you want a tractor with 5 wheels, type at the shell
       prompt:

       $ tractorgen 5

       Conversely, if you want a tractor with 113 wheels, type:

       $ tractorgen 113

       Remember that tractors with large numbers of wheels may overflow the
       width of your terminal, with unpredictable results. Actually, it will
       probably just look like shit.


FILES

       None


SEE ALSO

       abort(3)


WEBSITE

       http://www.vergenet.net/~konradd/software/tractorgen/


AUTHOR

       Kbert <k@vergenet.net>


LICENSE

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
       Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
       option) any later version. See the file COPYING for details.

       Though I have no idea why you'd want to do any of this.

                                3th March 2000                   TRACTORGEN(6)

Search: Section: