Appendix F — Glossary
One word for each idea, used the same way everywhere in the game and in this book.
- Board
- The square where the pieces lie.
- Command
- The word a Puzzle Button placement is given (Reset, Shuffle, Step, Sort, Upload, Lesson): which Request Function Button Action runs.
- Comparison
- The computer reads two neighboring slots and decides.
- Computer
- The automatic sort.
- Cursor
- The left slot of the computer’s next comparison.
- Exchange
- The player trades the pieces of any two slots. Counted in Moves.
- Focus
- The slot the keyboard is on.
- gridSize
- Pieces in one row: 3, 5 or 8.
- Home
- The slot whose number equals a piece’s ID. A piece “is home” there.
- Lesson Panel
- The “How it works” panel over the game.
- Lesson Panel Controls
- The Input Context of Close Panel (F, Escape); on only while the Lesson Panel is open.
- Mode
- One of the ways an Event can run; Switch Mode chooses it.
- Outline
- The colored square behind each piece.
- Pass
- One sweep of comparisons in one direction: forward (reading order) or backward.
- Picture
- The whole image being rebuilt: Village, Forest, Harbor, or an uploaded one.
- Piece
- One square cut of the picture. Its ID is its home slot and its frame in the sliced picture.
- Piece count
- How many pieces the board holds: 9, 25 or 64.
- Player
- The person playing.
- Preview
- The small whole picture beside the board.
- Puzzle Controls
- The Input Context of every key of the puzzle; on while the Lesson Panel is closed.
- Selection
- The first piece chosen, waiting for the second.
- Settled
- A slot outside the unsorted range: its piece is final.
- Slide
- The short movement of two exchanged or swapped pieces.
- Slot
- A fixed place on the board, numbered 0 to count-1 in reading order (the player sees 1 to count). One row of Board Slots.
- Solved
- The Game State once every piece is home; message “Picture complete.”
- Speed
- Slow, Steady or Fast: how quickly Sort makes comparisons.
- Starting arrangement
- The order Reset goes back to; Shuffle makes a new one.
- Swap
- The computer trades two neighboring pieces that were out of order.
- Unsorted range
- Slots rangeStart to rangeEnd still being sorted.
- Upload
- The player choosing a picture of their own from a file; it becomes the Pictures row Uploaded for the session.