      Welcome to Mazeing

Mazeing is a program which will generate millions of different mazes, each maze is unique and contains only one path between any two points.  The objective is to find the path between the entrance and exit.

You can solve the mazes on the screen or you can send them to the printer.  Mazeing can also show you the solution.

Getting Started

When the program starts it will automatically generate a new maze.

By positioning the mouse near the entrance or exit to the maze the mouse pointer will change into a pencil, you can then draw a track through the maze by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse.

To print the maze select Print from the File menu.

To generate a new maze select New from the Maze menu.  This option also allows you to select the size of the new maze, this size will be used as the default for further mazes.

If you are part way through solving a maze you can save it and later reload it using the Save and Load commands under the File menu.  Also the Copy command under the Edit menu will copy the maze onto the Windows Clipboard.

Finally you can cheat by selecting Show Solution from the Maze menu.  Mazeing will then calculate and display the only path through the maze from entrance to exit.

Details

Commands	Summary of the menu commands.

New Maze	Generate a new maze.

Print Maze	Printi a maze.

Auto Print	Generate many mazes and print without intervention.

Drawing tracks 	Mark a track through the maze.

About Mazeing 	Who wrote it and why.


A cell is the basic component of a maze, the maze consists of many cells or squares with one or more of their walls removed joining them to their neighbours.


      Menu Commands

File

Load...	Load a maze file from disk.

Save...	Save the current maze as a disk file.

Print... 	Print the current maze.

Auto Print 	Generate and print many mazes.

Print Setup	Select and setup the printer.

Exit	Terminate the Mazeing program.

Edit

Copy	Place the current maze onto the clipboard.

Maze

New... 	Copy the current maze to the clipboard.

Show Solution	Display the path between entrance and exit.

Show Track	Display or hide the track which has been drawn.

Help

Contents	Display this help file.

Using Help	How to use the WINHELP program.

About	Version number and date.


      New Maze

To generate a new maze select New from the Maze menu then on OK.  While the maze is being generated you can use the computer for other work.

The dialog box offers a number of options:

Height and Width
Dimensions of the maze specified in terms of maze cells.  The height and width must be between 5 and 2000 cells with the whole maze containing less than 60,000 cells (height multiplied by width).

Beep when finished
Check this box to sound a signal when the maze is complete.

Some sizes are more useful than others.  For solving a maze on the screen try the following:

Easy	30 high by 30 wide.

Hard	60 high by 60 wide.

Difficult	80 high by 80 wide.

For printed mazes using portrait paper try the following:

Easy	45 high by 30 wide.

Hard	90 high by 60 wide.

Difficult	120 high by 80 wide.

Impossible	150 high by 100 wide.


      Printing

To print a maze select Print from the File menu.

The print dialog box offers a number of options:

Copies
Select the number of copies to print.

Print Solution
Check this box to show the solution on the printed output.

Print Tracks
Check this box to show the track you may have drawn using the track drawing facility.  This option will be unavailable if nothing has been drawn on the maze.

Printer...
This button will display the printer set up dialog.  This provides for the selection of alternative printers, paper orientation, etc.

Margins...
This button will allow the page margins to be set up.


      Automatic Printing

If you are a really addicted to solving mazes then this option is for you.

Mazeing will automatically generate and print as many mazes as you wish.  For each maze generated you can specify the number of normal copies to print (ie.  without a solution) and the number of copies with a solution.

Why is this good?

You could have fun with your family.  Print a number of mazes with one copy for each member, then have a competition to see who completes the most mazes first.  Because you all have a copy of the same maze the competition is fair.  You can also print one copy of the solution for each maze in case no one can work it out.

Going on a long camping trip?  You could print enough mazes to keep yourself occupied for weeks!

To automatically generate and print mazes select Auto Print from the File menu.  When the automatic print dialog box is displayed select the number of mazes, the number of copies per maze and click on OK to start the process.  Mazeing will commence generating and printing mazes without intervention while you use the computer for real work.

If you are using Print Manager be aware that large mazes can require over 500K of disk space each while being spooled.  With even a moderate number of mazes this could result in your computer running out of disk space.

The dialog box offers a number of options:

Number of mazes
Select the number of mazes to generate.

Normal copies
Select the number of copies to print without a solution (for each maze).

With solution
Select the number of copies to print with a solution (for each maze).

Printer...
This button will display the printer set up dialog.  This provides for the selection of alternative printers, paper orientation, etc.

Margins...
This button will allow the page margins to be set up.


      Page Margins

This dialog box sets up the page margins for printing.  Note that these margins are in addition to any default margins which may be set up in the printer driver or printer set up dialog box.

The margins can be set in inches (in), centimetres (cm) or millimetres (mm).  The units of measurement must be specified after the number.

For example:

1.5 in

20 mm

2 cm


      Drawing Tracks

Mazeing allows you to draw a track through the maze using the mouse.  Not only does this save paper but it allows you to quickly erase part of the track and start again.

To invoke this facility move the mouse pointer to either entrance of the maze, so that the mouse pointer changes to a pencil.

ie:

Click using the left mouse button on the entrance, then the next cell inside the entrance, then the next cell within the maze and so on.  As you click on each cell mazing will draw a track following the mouse.  Note that you can only go forward one cell at a time.  If you make a mistake you can go back along the track and click on one of the middle cells, Mazeing will then erase the track back to that point.

Once you have started drawing from one entrance you cannot also start from the other entrance (that would be cheating).  You must completely erase the track by clicking on the first entrance before starting with the other.

As a more convenient alternative to clicking you can hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse pointer through the maze to draw the track.


About Space
      About Mazeing

Mazeing
Version 1.1     March 1995

Requires Windows 3.1 or greater.

Mazeing was written as an exercise in Microsoft's C++ and Foundation Classes.  It is placed in the public domain and may be copied and used without charge.

Author:

Geoffrey R Graham

CompuServe:	100242,52

Internet:	100242.52@CompuServe.COM

Mail:	5/4 Arundel Street, South Perth, Western Australia, 6151

Configuration note:

Under Windows 3.1 Mazeing will automatically give dialog boxes a 3 dimensional style if it can find either CTL3D.DLL or CTL3DV2.DLL in your windows system directory or path.  If you prefer the standard dialog box style change the line in MAZEING.INI (in your Windows directory)
from
    3DEffects=1
to
    3DEffects=0