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The Datafile PD-CD 5
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DATAFILE_PDCD5.iso
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utilities
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macrolife
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!MacroLife
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!Help
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1996-06-21
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630 lines
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/ |/ / ____ ____ ___ ____ / , ____ ____
/ / / / / / ' / / / / /_ /___/ *
/ / (___/| (___ / (___/ (____ / / (___ * 1.90
* * *
Copyright © Chris Taylor, 1996.
___________________________________________________________________________
MacroLife is suitable for use with all versions of RISC OS.
If this is an unregistered copy, please read the end of this file
for information on the extra goodies you get when you register
(and support the charity Motivation).
This Help file is split into sections:
* Introduction
* What is Life? <-- For newcomers to Life
* How to use this program
* Quick start <-- MacroLife essentials
* The Manual
* Acknowledgements
* Registering your copy of MacroLife <-- why register?
There is more information in the Docs directory within the application.
*** MacroLife also supports on-line help via Acorn's Help application ***
___________________________________________________________________________
******************
** Introduction **
******************
MacroLife is a desktop version of the famous game of Life,
invented by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.
It displays a scrollable window onto a Life plane, or grid, onto
which you can place patterns of cells and watch how they evolve.
Besides running on the desktop, MacroLife offers a very large Life plane.
It is 65,536 cells on a side, over 4 billion cells in total.
Facilities are provided to assist with navigating around the plane, but
they are only needed if you want to generate really large patterns.
Other features include:
* saving, loading and editing of Life planes and regions.
* predefined Lifeforms.
* random field generation.
* an option to switch to other algorithms such as '3-4' Life.
* a provision for returning to the start position.
* a wide range of magnifications.
* ...
*******************
** What is Life? **
*******************
Life is a fascinating 'game' in which patterns of cells on a
two-dimensional plane evolve according to a simple rule.
Despite its simplicity, Life patterns can behave like living organisms,
moving, growing and even - theoretically, at least - reproducing and
evolving.
Each cell on the Life plane may be in one of two states, 'Alive' or
'Dead'. Time is measured in generations, each generation being produced
by applying a calculation to each cell on the grid. This rule of Life
is as follows:
A cell will be alive in the next generation if it has exactly three
living neighbours. If it has two live neighbours, it will preserve its
state. If it has any other number, it will be dead.
Each cell has eight neighbours, including the diagonally adjacent cells.
The smallest object in Life is the 'blinker'; three cells in a row.
The rules of Life switch the blinker between horizontal and vertical
every generation:
*
*** * ***
*
The pattern on the icon bar, the glider, is the simplest of many Life
'spaceships', patterns which move. The glider moves diagonally:
*
* * * * * *
*** ** * * ** *
* ** ** ***
The other Life pattern which MacroLife uses as a symbol is called the
'r pentomino', since with imagination it looks a little like a lower
case 'r':
**
**
*
The word 'pentomino' is simply an extension of 'domino': a domino has
two sections, and a pentomino has five.
Putting an 'r' pentomino on the Life plane and selecting 'Run' results
in an explosion of growth and activity.
There are many approaches to exploring Life, you can place large random
patterns and watch them 'evolve', design new Lifeforms, or simply have
fun crashing Life spaceships and other patterns into each other to see
what happens.
The Draw file 'Patterns' in the MacroLife Docs directory contains a
catalogue of Life patterns (including a prolific but unstable 'Acorn').
Since Life was described by Martin Gardner in his Scientific American
column, many enthusiasts have spent countless hours exploring its
behaviour.
Several books are available which describe these explorations, including
'The recursive universe' by William Poundstone, which among many other
things describes how a Life pattern could reproduce itself.
In the last few years, some remarkable discoveries have stimulated a
fresh wave of interest in Life. Dean Hickerson, David Bell and others
have led the search for new Lifeforms, and many of their creations are
available in the library supplied with the registered version of
MacroLife.
*****************************
** How to use this program **
*****************************
Quick start
===========
To start MacroLife, double-click on the application to run it and then
click Select over the icon bar icon. This will create a new Life plane.
You can add new cells to the plane by clicking with Select. You can
also hold down the Select button and drag the mouse around, much like
using Paint. Use Adjust to remove cells.
When you have created your pattern, click on the 'Run' button or choose
'Run' from the Edit menu to watch it evolve. If it goes too fast, you
can single-step the display using the 'Step' button or menu item.
MacroLife has a collection of Life patterns - 'Lifeforms' - built in;
you can call them up via the 'Add Lifeform' entry in the Edit menu.
Once you have selected a Lifeform, a grey pattern with a dashed box
surrounding it will appear on the plane. You can move this around with
the mouse and then click Select to place it. A good pattern to start
with is the 'Glider gun', in the 'Guns' submenu.
If the Help application is running, it will display additional
information about about each Lifeform in the menu.
There are many facilities provided for editing these patterns, and you
can combine them to build new ones.
As an example, place a glider gun on the Life plane and run it until
the 'Gen' display reaches 61. (It should now look like the pattern in
MacroLife's start-up banner.) Now choose 'Glider mirror' from the
'Others' submenu. Move the grey glider until it is superimposed on the
leading glider from the gun, and click 'Select'. If you start the
program running again, a continuous stream of gliders should bounce
off the mirror.
When the generation reaches 106, stop the program and choose
'Glider mirror' again. This time, to match up the gliders you will need
to rotate the mirror. Press 'A' on the keyboard to rotate the mirror
A)nticlockwise, and you will be able to superimpose the gliders and
start running again.
You can also copy blocks of cells around the plane, and you can rotate
and reflect these as well.
To return to your starting position, or get rid of all the cells:
* Double-click over the 'Gen' display to set the Generation to 0.
* Double-click over the 'Pop' display to set the Population to 0.
MacroLife uses two file types: Lifeforms, which can be automatically
included in the 'Add Lifeform' menu, and Life planes, which store the
whole plane together with settings and window positions.
You can load both types of file by double-clicking on them, but
MacroLife can only edit one plane at a time. Double-clicking on a
Lifeform file will add it to any existing patterns on the plane.
You can also drag Lifeform files onto the plane. They will appear
centred on the mouse pointer.
The Manual
==========
The icon bar menu
-----------------
This has the usual 'Info' and 'Quit' items, and a 'Help' item which
displays the file you are reading. The 'Save choices' item will save
the options set for the current Life plane. It will be shaded if you
do not have a plane open. It saves the choices set from the 'Opt