/usr/share/doc/xmabacus/README is in xmabacus 8.0.2-1.
This file is owned by root:root, with mode 0o644.
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An Abacus Widget
Web: http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/abacus.html
Download: Primary site: ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/tux/bagleyd/xabacus
Secondary site: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/apps/math
Maintainer: David A. Bagley <bagleyd@tux.org>
By default, this is an implementation of the classic Chinese abacus
(Saun-pan). Other implementations are easily configurable including
the Japanese Abacus (Soroban), the Korean Abacus (Supan), the Roman
Hand-abacus, the Russian Abacus (Schoty), and the Danish Learning
Abacus.
Essentially, this is a proof by induction that a computer is more
powerful than an abacus, since a computer program can contain an abacus.
(But then again, you can simulate a computer within a computer, so what
does that show). Actually, with a real abacus, one can move more than
one row at a time with 10 fingers. But on the other hand, a real abacus
does not have the current sum displayed as an integer.
You may need to install one of these to build Motif version:
sudo apt-get install libmotif-dev
sudo apt-get install lesstif2-dev
Then should be a simple
configure; make
Try resizing the abacus. Notice the shape and size change of the beads.
Try editing the file Abacus.ad to get a certain feature and then copying
to $(HOME)/Abacus (where Abacus is the file name) and running xabacus
again. There is also a Windows port (wabacus), though not all features
are included.
Keep in mind that the Abacus is a widget that can be simply stuck in
other X programs. (If you find a use for this, let me know).
It has a built-in demo-mode that instructs the user:
- how to count (from 1 to 20) using the abacus
- how to perform simple additions
- how to perform simple subtractions.
- how to multiply... works best on Lee's Abacus
There is also a teach-mode feature that teaches the user the proper way
to carry out calculations supplied by the user for:
- addition
- subtraction
- multiplication
- division
In addition, there is a rudimentary facility for generating data that
may be used to write customized scripts for teaching other concepts.
The PostScript document, Abacus.ps, included in the distribution,
describes every possible technique for performing additions and
subtractions using an abacus.
Refer to the man page for detailed command line options.
FOUND A BUG?
Send bugs reports and fixes to the author. For bugs, please include
as much information as to their location as possible, since I may not
be able to duplicate them.
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