Cube Explorer 2  is no update of Cube Explorer 1.5 but a completely new
development written in Delphi. The major improvements to version 1.5 are:

- more intelligent facelet-editor with automatic error correction
- more powerful pattern-editor
- a much (about 50 times) faster two-phase-algorithm
- integration of the optimal solver
- multithreading for computations on several cubes at the same time
- possibility to search maneuvers from one cube state to another


The price for the faster algorithms is a higher memory requirement. With 128 MB of RAM
you will have no problems.

Maybe there are still a few bugs. If you find a bug or have other suggestions for
improvements please mail to: kociemba@t-online.de


And please don't forget: Cube Explorer is freeware.  If you would like
to reward the extensive work which was necessary to develop the
user-interface and the mathematical theory for the algorithm (although
this part was fun), please send a postcard from where you live to:


Herbert Kociemba
Bismarckstr. 31
D-64293 Darmstadt
Germany


Version History:

2002-09-01 Cube Explorer 2.25
           - Type of Metric displayed behind maneuver length now(f: Face Turn Metric,
             q: Quarter Turn Metric).
           - Source Code support to compile a Quarter Turn Metric version of
             Cube Explorer (in cubedefs.pas).
           - Possibility to find more than one optimal maneuver with the Optimal Solvers.
	   - Current filename displayed in caption of window.
           - Description of the mathematics behind Cube Explorer in the Help File.
           - Some routines rewritten, source code documentation improved.

2002-02-09 Cube Explorer 2.21
           - Improved help file
           - Two-Phase algorithm about 50% faster.
           - Possibility to toggle Multiple Direction Search

2002-02-02 Cube Explorer 2.20 (so many 2's and 0's)
           - A basic context-sensitive help is now available - finally!
           - Speed of the Huge Optimal increased by about 40%.

2002-01-14 Cube Explorer 2.14
           - The "Simple Modification" from Version 2.13 is not possible with
             the Huge Optimal Solver and had to be removed again for this solver.
           - Additional information about the number of generated nodes and the
             computing time for an Optimal Search, accessible when moving the mouse
             over the Optimal-Checkbox during the search.

2002-01-13 Cube Explorer 2.13
           - Right mouse button usage for faceturns in the Facelet Editor.
           - Simple modification of the algorithm increases the speed of the
             Optimal Solver(s) by about 35% (thanks Michiel de Bondt!).
           - Bug fixed which occasionally crashed the program on closing.

2001-11-20 Cube Explorer 2.12
           - Optimized storage of the pattern databases with 1.6 bit/pattern
             reduces the size of the big tables by 20%.

2001-10-20 Cube Explorer 2.11
           - The Source Code did not compile properly under Delphi 6 due to
             changes in the TThread class.
           - Improved texts for several Messageboxes.

2001-10-04 Cube Explorer 2.1
           - Improved pruning table generation algorithm doubles the speed
             on first start (9min instead of 19 minutes on my P550MHz system).
           - Additional implementation of a very fast optimal solver for power
             users with 1 GB of RAM.          

2001-09-23 Cube Explorer 2.04
           - File|Exit did not work. Never used this feature before...
		
2001-09-09 Cube Explorer 2.03
           - Double buffering bug fixed.
           - Output of Cube Explorer can now generate a HTML file displaying a
             Java Applet for 3D-view of the cubes.

2001-09-08 Cube Explorer 2.02
           - Double buffering the Output Window to reduce flickering on scrolling

2001-09-01 Cube Explorer 2.01      
           - 2 minor bugs concerning the Two-Phase-Algorithm removed.
           - Faster generation of the 34.5 MB Pruning Table.
           - Minimum Size for the Main Window.
           - Physical Memory Detection. The program terminates if there is less than
             90 MB of RAM installed.


2001-08-19 Release of Cube Explorer 2.0