Maze
A Maze exploring screensaver, written by David Bau.
For use with BackSpace.  Should work both intel and motorola NS 3.1+.

Installation
1. Uncompress the file MazeView.tar.Z from the Workspace or a shell.  This will make a single directory MazeView/ with all the sources.
2. From a shell, cd MazeView, and type ªmakeº to compile the module
3. To install the module in ~/Apps/Backspace.app, type ªmake installº  To install it elsewhere, for example in /LocalLibrary/BackSpaceViews, type ªmake install INSTALLDIR=/LocalLibrary/BackSpaceViewsº.

About Maze
This screensaver draws a snaking path exploring a maze, mapping the maze as it is explored.  The speed and color of the drawing can be varied.

How Maze Works
Mazes are generated randomly, without drawing, on a grid of squares by repeating the following process, beginning at a random square: if there are any unvisited squares adjacent to the current square, one of them is randomly chosen as the next square, and an opening is made between the two squares; if all the adjacent squares have already been visited, the algorithm backtracks to the previous square; when the algorithm backtracks from the first square, every square on the grid will have been visited, and the maze is complete.

Mazes are explored and drawn in a depth-first search order until every part of the maze has been visited.  The search order is the same that would be obtained if a blind explorer navigated the maze by following the wall on his right hand side at every turn.

About Dave
Dave has always been a maze nut, and advises that any computer at any price is a worthwhile investment if it can churn out mazes.  If you like this module or fix it up or find something interesting about it, it would delight Dave to no end if you sent him a postcard mentioning "Maze for NextStep" to let him know.

David Bau; 777 South Avenue; Weston, MA 02193.  bau@cs.cornell.edu
2/1/94.