Math::PlanePath::ComplexRevolving3pm

Usage

 use Math::PlanePath::ComplexRevolving;
 my $path = Math::PlanePath::ComplexRevolving->new;
 my ($x, $y) = $path->n_to_xy (123);

Overview

This path traverses points by a complex number base i+1 with turn factor i (+90 degrees) at each 1 bit. This is the "revolving binary representation" of Knuth's Seminumerical Algorithms section 4.1 exercise 28.

             54 51       38 35            5
          60 53       44 37               4
    39 46 43 58 23 30 27 42               3
       45  8 57  4 29 56 41 52            2
          31  6  3  2 15 22 19 50         1
    16    12  5  0  1 28 21    49     <- Y=0
    55 62 59 10  7 14 11 26              -1
       61 24  9 20 13 40 25 36           -2
          47       18 63       34        -3
    32          48 17          33        -4
                 ^
    -4 -3 -2 -1 X=0 1  2  3  4  5

The 1 bits in N are exponents e0 to et, in increasing order,

    N = 2^e0 + 2^e1 + ... + 2^et        e0 < e1 < ... < et

and are applied to a base b=i+1 as

    X+iY = b^e0 + i * b^e1 + i^2 * b^e2 + ... + i^t * b^et

Each 2^ek has become b^ek base b=i+1. The i^k is an extra factor i at each 1 bit of N, causing a rotation by +90 degrees for the bits above it. Notice the factor is i^k not i^ek, ie. it increments only with the 1-bits of N, not the whole exponent.

A single bit N=2^k is the simplest and is X+iY=(i+1)^k. These N=1,2,4,8,16,etc are at successive angles 45, 90, 135, etc degrees (the same as in "ComplexPlus"). But points N=2^k+1 with two bits means X+iY=(i+1) + i*(i+1)^k and that factor "i*" is a rotation by 90 degrees so points N=3,5,9,17,33,etc are in the next quadrant around from their preceding 2,4,8,16,32.

As per the exercise in Knuth it's reasonably easy to show that this calculation is a one-to-one mapping between integer N and complex integer X+iY, so the path covers the plane and visits all points once each.

Functions

See "FUNCTIONS" in Math::PlanePath for behaviour common to all path classes.

"$path = Math::PlanePath::ComplexRevolving->new ()"

Create and return a new path object.

"($x,$y) = $path->n_to_xy ($n)"

Return the X,Y coordinates of point number $n on the path. Points begin at 0 and if "$n < 0" then the return is an empty list.

Home page

<http://user42.tuxfamily.org/math-planepath/index.html>