Hexbinmos' Elementary Notation

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Hexbinmos' Elementary Notation was proposed on the 31st of July, 2012[1] by FPSB's Hexbinmos and worked on also by Fel2Fram. It described six elementary tricks that could be used to describe all tricks and combinations in pen spinning, with rules on how to combine them to describe the combinations themselves.

Elementary tricks

The six elementary tricks described were each assigned a letter from the Greek alphabet, used to abbreviate them when writing.

α Fingerswitch

A spinless change of slots, the fingers and hand move but the pen remains stationary.

β Half-tipped Charge

A tipped charge-like motion. The rotation about the slot is clockwise for the normal and counter-clockwise for the reverse.

γ Wiper

A wiper-like motion, that can be performed in the center of the pen as well as at the ends.

δ Roll

Rolling the pen along its long axis, without changing a slot.

ε Slide

A sliding motion to move the pen more towards the inside or outside of a slot, without changing the slot.

ζ Stall half-release

An aerial throw for normal, and a catch for reverse.

Grammar

The notation had a unique grammar that involved separating the tricks, connectors and slots into their own blocks:

Tricks -> Connectors -> Slots[2]

This leads to difficulty reading complicated sequences, as first the reader must determine what connector goes between each trick, and then map slots to them, unlike traditional notation. The reasoning for why this is done is unknown, but may be some intentional obfuscating that adds barriers to using it, and the grammar is a large reason as to why it was never adopted beyond a concept.

Grammatical blocks

Tricks

The series of tricks that would be performed without connecting elements. For example αβα for a thumbaround.

Connectors

There are three connectors:

  • > - Equivalent to -> in standard notation, a trick that is to be performed after another trick completes.
  • ~ - The same as ~ in standard notation, a trick that is interrupted by the next trick or directly transitions into the next trick.
  • + - The same as + in standard notation, a trick that is performed simultaneously with a second trick.

The three connectors are then prefixed by a marker indicating direction:

  • , - A comma for normal direction
  • ; - Semicolon for reverse

For example, (,>;>,). Note the final comma without a connector that indicates the direction of a final trick that does not lead into anything. Note also that the entire connector segment is contained within parentheses.

Slots

Contained also within parentheses as with the connector segment, the individual slot transitions are written in their own individual parentheses. The transitions also contain spins inside square brackets and are separated by colons. For example, ((T.21-T2-T* [0.0]): (T* [1.0]): (T*-T1 [0.0])).

Examples

There were a couple examples provided by Hexbinmos for his notation system, an example of notating a thumbaround and an undeciphered example that describes an unknown sequence.

Thumbaround

αβα (,>;>,) ((T.21-T2-T* [0.0]): (T* [1.0]): (T*-T1 [0.0]))

Nonsense sequence

αβγδεγαββδεγε (;>;>,>,~;>,~;~,>,>,+;+,>,) ((12-T* [1.0]):(34-2* [0.5]):(14-4*[0.25]):(34-2*):(14-4*[1.5]):(42-1* [0.25]):(12-12 [0.5]):(23-32 [0.5]):(41-31 [1.0]):(14-32[0.25]):(31-31 [1.0]):(14-24 [0.25]))

This sequence, formerly known as the "unknown sequence" went unsolved for a decade, before finally being resolved to a nonsense sequence with slots that don't follow on properly from one-another, and an incorrect grammar.

Influence

The notation system inspired several later attempts to break down unique tricks and simplify the ideas. Most notably RPD went on to create his Simplified Elementary Notation to fix several issues with the initial idea.

Hexbinmos' original notation was notably flawed at the time, but it took until recent days to decode the examples that he provided. In particular, the longer example that he had written has incorrect grammar, and decodes to a nonsense sequence, possibly a joke at the time as he didn't predict that someone would actually attempt to interpret his notation system at such a length.

See also

References

  1. "Elementary Notation Research" FPSB Forums Thread by Hexbinmos
  2. Gonzalez, D. (2021). Pen spinning history and notation. pp.50-51.