Information on the Tiling Database
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Sources
2.1 Copyright
3 Acknowledgements
4 The main search facility
5 The simple search facility
6 The Tree search facility
A Revision record
If you have comments on this Internet site, please email the author at
the address above. Contributions are also requested. High quality digital
photographs of tiling patterns that should be in this collection would
be much appreciated.
1 Introduction
This site consists of a data base and search facilities to locate
items in the collection. Unlike most data bases, the items are images,
but ones that have substantial structure. This structure is recorded
in the data base making searching and retrieval possible.
2 Sources
Currently, almost all of the material recorded here has been extracted
from publications. Hence for every item, there is a list of publications
that refers to it. The complete list of publications is in the list.
Each publication is referenced by text string enclosed in square brackets.
In those cases in which the author has been provided with information that
has not been published or placed on the Internet, the `publication' [pc]
is used (standing for personal communication).
If you want an ordinary publication containing the great majority of
the information here, you can purchase on-line the CD/booklet: [1].
2.1 Copyright
The contents of this site are licensed under a
Creative
Commons License.
If we have, but accident, infringed your copyright, please notify us
and we will remove the offending item.
If we have, but accident, not correctly attributed work to yourself,
please notify use and we will amend the offending item.
3 Acknowledgements
Thanks to World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd for publishing The
World of Patterns [ISBN: 981-02-4619-6 (pbk); © 2001],
which has provided a basis for this Internet system.
This site is actually hosted by
Perspective Technologies
Ltd, the Directors of whom are the two youngest sons of the author of
this system.
The list of sources shows the large number of people who have effectively
contributed to this work via their publications.
People who have contributed includes (alphabetically):
- S. J. Abas,
- Jean-Marc Castera,
- Marc Fleurent,
- Paul Gailiunas,
- Chaim Goodman-Strauss,
- Michael Greenhalgh,
- Branko Grünbaum,
- Graham Higgins,
- Craig S. Kaplan,
- Ron Knott,
- Tony Lee,
- Joseph S. Myers,
- Peter Pleasants (decd.),
- John Rigby,
- John Sharp,
- Rusell Sunderland,
- David Wichmann.
Various facilities have made undertaking this work possible including:
GNAT Ada compiler, MySql, Graphic Converter, Python, Fugu and all of this
software on an Apple computer.
Producing the publication list would hardly have been possible without
the National Art Library on-line catalogue.
4 The main search facility
This search uses an HTML form to specify a number of conditions that a
tiling pattern must satisfy. Unlike many Internet searches, this one
obtains an exact match. If you request a pentagon, then the pattern
has to have an exact regular pentagon - one that looks as if it might
be regular, but is not, will not do.
To satisfy the conditions, all of them must be satisfied. Hence, when
combining unusual conditions, it may well be that no tiling pattern
satisfies the conditions you have given. To refine a search, the
HTML back facility can be used to edit the existing search
options. Otherwise the Reset button can be used to start again.
One cannot specify a search for the absence of something. Hence one
may get a tiling pattern with a regular octagon even though that was
not requested.
Three options are available for presenting the results, always as a
list. Small images are available for quick identification, a list
of titles, and lastly, a list of the tilings with the reference
information for each one. This last option is useful for checking
all the references to a specific publication.
Note that the text search is somewhat slower than the other forms
of searching.
5 The simple search facility
This facility aims to be as simple as possible. The user just needs to select the shapes
present in the pattern - the shapes being regular polygons and regular star
polygons. Only the major polygons and star polygons are listed.
The search finds the tilings with only the selected regular shapes
present. Hence if a search is made for tilings containing equilateral
triangles and hexagons, then tiling containing those and squares will not
be included. This implies that the search logic is different from the
main search facility.
6 The Tree search facility
This facility allows to locate a pattern by answering simple questions
about it. When relatively few patterns are left, all are displayed for
making the final selection.
References
- [1]
-
B. A. Wichmann, The World of Patterns, CD and booklet. World
Scientific. 2001. ISBN 981-02-4619-6
URL
A Revision record
- Started, 31st May 2007.
- Revised, 13th September 2007.
- Added Fugu to software used, 2nd December 2007.
- Added further acknowledgments, 17th December 2007.
- Revision restored after disc crash, 20th January 2008.
- Added further acknowledgments, 25th February 2008.
- Details of tree search added, 22nd June 2008;
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On 22 Jun 2008, 23:21.