Multiple small patterns in several different CA in a single snippet / Medium-size pattern collections

[confocaloid]

What are existing possibilities for sharing multiple small patterns in a single snippet (medium-size pattern collections)?

Here is what I consider a good summary of the underlying problem/issue:

Warning:this is a thread for ship collections, since it would be a bit annoying to see 20 ships in 20 different rules that aren’t very interesting at all [...]

"Posting one snippet with multiple small patterns" is going to be much better than "posting multiple small snippets, one for every pattern".

The idea is to be able to perform basic operations (share, preview one-by-one, view in Golly) for a set of patterns put in a single snippet.
There could be a dozen or two of small patterns, all packed in a single snippet.
In general, the patterns could be in several different cellular automata (which means one cannot easily put them all in a single RLE).

The snippet format could be as simple as "plain text, one pattern per line, well-formed headerless RLE + rulestring + comments":

Code: Select all

[patterns]
bo$3o! B3/S2-n36c An orthogonal c/11 spaceship
bo$2bo$3o! B3/S23 The diagonal c/4 glider in Conway's Life
bo13bo$2bo11bo$o2bo9bo2bo$obo11bobo$o15bo2$2b2o9b2o$2bobo7bobo$3bo9bo! B36/S23 An orthogonal c/98 spaceship in HighLife
...
[/patterns]

Previous relevant discussion:

A vague feature request: allow to put multiple RLEs in a single viewer, with ability to "page through" patterns one-by-one. This would be different from putting a single stamp collection

It's already possible to do this in your own web page. See here for an example.

I'm not sure of the benefit of having this on the forum since it makes it harder to copy and paste individual patterns.

You can also already use POIs to pan to different areas of a larger pattern (like the Exploratorium). You could also separate different areas of the pattern with [R]History/[R]Super state 6 cells.

This is meant to be two separate patterns running in two non-interacting toroidal universes, but shown on a single sheet. The file format could be structured to allow more than one pattern in a single file (possibly with different rules / topologies, and with associated metadata for each pattern in the file). Actions "Start/stop generating", "Next generation" could be used either for single patterns or for the whole sheet.

Code: Select all

#C patterns from https://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=176406#p176406
x = 131, y = 78, rule = B3S23History
53.78D$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD
$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D21B2A53BD$53.D7BABA11B2A53BD$53.D8B2A66BD$53.D
8BA67BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$44D9.D76BD$D42BD9.D76BD$D
2BA39BD9.D76BD$D3BA38BD9.D10B2A2B2AB2A57BD$DB3A38BD9.D10B2AB2A3B2A56B
D$D42BD9.D14B2AB2A57BD$D42BD9.D15B3A58BD$D7BA34BD9.D16BA59BD$D8BA33BD
9.D76BD$D6B3A33BD9.D13B2A15BA45BD$D42BD9.D14BA13BABA45BD$D42BD9.D11B
3A15B2A45BD$D12BA29BD9.D11BA64BD$D13BA28BD9.D76BD$D11B3A28BD9.D76BD$D
42BD9.D76BD$D42BD9.D76BD$D17BA24BD9.D76BD$D18BA23BD9.D76BD$D16B3A12BA
10BD9.D76BD$D29B3A10BD9.D76BD$D28BA13BD9.D76BD$D18B3A7B2A12BD9.D76BD$
D17BA3BA20BD9.D76BD$D16BA5BA19BD9.D76BD$D11B2A3BA5BA19BD9.D76BD$D11B
2A3B3AB3A6BA12BD9.D76BD$D30BA11BD9.D76BD$D28B3A11BD9.D48BA27BD$D42BD
9.D49B2A25BD$D15BA26BD9.D48B2A26BD$D14BABA17BA7BD9.D58B2A16BD$D15BA
19BA6BD9.D58B2A6B2A8BD$D33B3A6BD9.D66BA9BD$D42BD9.D59BA4BABA9BD$D42BD
9.D58B3A3B2A10BD$D39BA2BD9.D58BAB2A14BD$D40BABD9.D61B2A13BD$D38B3ABD
9.D58BAB2A14BD$D42BD9.D58B3A15BD$44D9.D59BA16BD$53.D76BD$53.D47B2A27B
D$53.D47B2A27BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D65BA
10BD$53.D66BA9BD$53.D64B3A9BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.
D76BD$53.D76BD$53.D76BD$53.78D!
#C [[ VIEWONLY ]]

[Aleph]

What are existing possibilities for sharing multiple small patterns in a single snippet (medium-size pattern collections)?

Here is what I consider a good summary of the underlying problem/issue:

Warning:this is a thread for ship collections, since it would be a bit annoying to see 20 ships in 20 different rules that aren’t very interesting at all [...]

"Posting one snippet with multiple small patterns" is going to be much better than "posting multiple small snippets, one for every pattern".

The idea is to be able to perform basic operations (share, preview one-by-one, view in Golly) for a set of patterns put in a single snippet.
There could be a dozen or two of small patterns, all packed in a single snippet.
In general, the patterns could be in several different cellular automata (which means one cannot easily put them all in a single RLE).

The snippet format could be as simple as "plain text, one pattern per line, well-formed headerless RLE + rulestring + comments":

Code: Select all

[patterns]
bo$3o! B3/S2-n36c An orthogonal c/11 spaceship
bo$2bo$3o! B3/S23 The diagonal c/4 glider in Conway's Life
bo13bo$2bo11bo$o2bo9bo2bo$obo11bobo$o15bo2$2b2o9b2o$2bobo7bobo$3bo9bo! B36/S23 An orthogonal c/98 spaceship in HighLife
...
[/patterns]

A collapsible box seems like it would solve the main issue of a bunch of pattern boxes taking up space. Anyone who wanted to dig through the patterns would still have to open each of them individually in LifeViewer (or Golly), but this seems like something that can be implemented quickly while a better solution is developed.

[dvgrn]

What are existing possibilities for sharing multiple small patterns in a single snippet (medium-size pattern collections)?
...
The snippet format could be as simple as "plain text, one pattern per line, well-formed headerless RLE + rulestring + comments":

Code: Select all

[patterns]
bo$3o! B3/S2-n36c An orthogonal c/11 spaceship
bo$2bo$3o! B3/S23 The diagonal c/4 glider in Conway's Life
bo13bo$2bo11bo$o2bo9bo2bo$obo11bobo$o15bo2$2b2o9b2o$2bobo7bobo$3bo9bo! B36/S23 An orthogonal c/98 spaceship in HighLife
...
[/patterns]

LifeViewer's "Multiverse mode" does seem potentially very relevant here.

Chris Rowett has actually been doing a bit more work on Multiverse mode recently. I'm hoping it will come in handy for an interactive display I'm working on putting together for the Museum of Mathematics in New York City, for their MOVES 2025 conference next August.

Multiverse mode can currently only get turned on and off via HTML, I think (?) -- the "multi" in

Code: Select all

<meta name="LifeViewer" content="viewer textarea 60 hide multi">

But maybe it could be rearranged a bit, so that the same type of functionality could also be triggered from a single block of text like this?

Code: Select all

#C [{ MULTIVERSE }]
#C [[ T 0 "An orthogonal c/11 spaceship" ]]
x = 3, y = 2, rule = B3/S2-n36c
bo$3o!
x = 3, y = 3, rule =  B3/S23
bo$2bo$3o!
#C [[ T 0 "The diagonal c/4 glider in Conway's Life" ]]
x = 17, y = 9, rule = B36/S23
bo13bo$2bo11bo$o2bo9bo2bo$obo11bobo$o15bo2$2b2o9b2o$2bobo7bobo$3bo9bo!
#C [[ T 0 "An orthogonal c/98 spaceship in HighLife" ]]

[Aleph]

But maybe it could be rearranged a bit, so that the same type of functionality could also be triggered from a single block of text like this?

Code: Select all

#C [{ MULTIVERSE }]
#C [[ T 0 "An orthogonal c/11 spaceship" ]]
x = 3, y = 2, rule = B3/S2-n36c
bo$3o!
x = 3, y = 3, rule =  B3/S23
bo$2bo$3o!
#C [[ T 0 "The diagonal c/4 glider in Conway's Life" ]]
x = 17, y = 9, rule = B36/S23
bo13bo$2bo11bo$o2bo9bo2bo$obo11bobo$o15bo2$2b2o9b2o$2bobo7bobo$3bo9bo!
#C [[ T 0 "An orthogonal c/98 spaceship in HighLife" ]]

It would still be nice if it could support alternating text and RLE, to decrease the amount of typing that has to be done. Or perhaps the collapsing box I mentioned could have a "copy as multiverse" option.