Thread for basic questions

[MDA]

Who controls the built-in object names in catagolue?

They’re described in a file named “common-names.txt” which seems to have gotten most of its entries from Andrzej Okrasinski’s census. They seem to have been generated automatically but Catagolue didn’t inherit that code.

[PK22]

Who controls the built-in object names in catagolue?

They are stored in all-common-names.txt. You are free to make a pull request, but no one has updated the file in nearly 3 years.

[NNlk05]

Who controls the built-in object names in catagolue?

You can PR the list at https://gitlab.com/hatsya/open-source/c ... type=heads.

[I6_I6]

What's the standard "canonical" initial state of any gun?
So far, I've seen three: the first emitted spaceship right at the edge of the gun's bounding box (like in catagolue), the first generation containing a fully formed spaceship, or for synthesis-based guns, just before the synthesis begins.
In my opinion, the second option is the most useful for using the guns in larger patterns.

[speedydelete]

What's the standard "canonical" initial state of any gun?
So far, I've seen three: the first emitted spaceship right at the edge of the gun's bounding box (like in catagolue), the first generation containing a fully formed spaceship, or for synthesis-based guns, just before the synthesis begins.
In my opinion, the second option is the most useful for using the guns in larger patterns.

I prefer the second option (first generation with a fully formed spaceship) myself, it seems the most natural to me, and it's fairly easy to compute.

Edit: I don't think there is a consensus, but I could be wrong.

[WhiteHawk]

Are this statorless p8 oscillators known? Found in C4_4

Code: Select all

x = 30, y = 30, rule = B3/S23
15bo$13b2o$13b2o$16bo$13b2obo$14bo$14bobo$15b2o$15bo$19bo$9b3o6b2o$10b
2o5b3o$11bo$3b2ob2o17bob2o$o6b2o14b3ob2o$b2ob3o14b2o6bo$b2obo17b2ob2o
$18bo$10b3o5b2o$10b2o6b3o$10bo$14bo$13b2o$13bobo$15bo$13bob2o$13bo$15b
2o$15b2o$14bo!

Code: Select all

x = 24, y = 24, rule = B3/S23
12bo$11bobo$10b2o$11bobo$11b3o$11bobo$11b2o2b2o$6b3o6b2o$6b2obo4bobo$
8bo6bo$bob3o15bo$o3bobo10b6o$b6o10bobo3bo$2bo15b3obo$8bo6bo$7bobo4bob
2o$7b2o6b3o$7b2o2b2o$10bobo$10b3o$10bobo$12b2o$10bobo$11bo!

[NNlk05]

Are this statorless p8 oscillators known? Found in C4_4

Code: Select all

x = 30, y = 30, rule = B3/S23
15bo$13b2o$13b2o$16bo$13b2obo$14bo$14bobo$15b2o$15bo$19bo$9b3o6b2o$10b
2o5b3o$11bo$3b2ob2o17bob2o$o6b2o14b3ob2o$b2ob3o14b2o6bo$b2obo17b2ob2o
$18bo$10b3o5b2o$10b2o6b3o$10bo$14bo$13b2o$13bobo$15bo$13bob2o$13bo$15b
2o$15b2o$14bo!

Code: Select all

x = 24, y = 24, rule = B3/S23
12bo$11bobo$10b2o$11bobo$11b3o$11bobo$11b2o2b2o$6b3o6b2o$6b2obo4bobo$
8bo6bo$bob3o15bo$o3bobo10b6o$b6o10bobo3bo$2bo15b3obo$8bo6bo$7bobo4bob
2o$7b2o6b3o$7b2o2b2o$10bobo$10b3o$10bobo$12b2o$10bobo$11bo!

I never seen them before. But I think they are known.

[hkoenig]

Did you try a search at Catagolue?

[Chris857]

Are this statorless p8 oscillators known? Found in C4_4

First one definitely since its apgcode shows up in the forums in 2023 - https://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic ... 27#p161827

[WhiteHawk]

Another question:

Getting back into the POG reducing Catagolue guns, and was trying to find if there was a lower-population syringe that fits when the highlighted eater is present but the red space is not an issue in terms of Bounding Box. Is there a better variant? (I feel like there is, but I can't find it)

Code: Select all

x = 39, y = 28, rule = LifeHistory
13.2A$13.A$15.A$14.2A2$2A$.A$.A.2A$2.A2.A$3.2A$18.2A$18.2A5$26.A3.2A$
25.A.A3.A$21.2A.A.A3.A$21.2A.A4.A7.2C$25.5A.A4.C.C$17.2A.A.2A.A4.A.A3.
C$17.A.2A.A2.A.2A2.A3.2C$10.2A12.2A.A.2A$10.2A5.16D$17.16D$17.16D$17.
16D!

[I6_I6]

What does the "smarter scaling" option in Golly do?

[WhiteHawk]

Could it be considered a HF shuttle with offset (3,2)? If so, it might be the first with that offset (I can't find any with that offset in the collection in LifeWiki).

I don't think so, the 2nd HF is interrupted by a spark which is not part of the supporting oscillator, so it is not a true HF hassler.

Code: Select all

x = 34, y = 24, rule = LifeHistory
14.A6.2A$6.2A6.3A4.2A6.A$2A3.A.A2.A6.A9.3A$A2.3A.A.A.A4.2A8.A$.2A3.A.
A2.A14.2A$4.A.A4.A.A5.2A$.2A3.A5.2A3.2A2.A$A2.A.A.A9.2A.2A$2A5.A.A7.2A
.2A$7.A2.2A3.C3.A$6.A8.C13.2A$2A5.3A.A15.A2.A$A.A6.3A4.A3.2A4.A.2A$2.
3A4.A6.A3.2A5.A2.3A$.A3.A4.2A3.A5.A6.2A3.A$.4A3.A.3A18.2A$4.2A.A13.A.
A4.2A.A$.3A3.A.3A10.2A4.A2.A$A3.2A2.A13.A6.2A$A.A2.2A.A3.A$.3A4.A.3A$
8.A13.2A$.2A.A4.6A7.2A$.A.2A6.A2.A!

[Macbi]

What does the "smarter scaling" option in Golly do?

When you zoom out further than 1:1 the cells of the grid become smaller than the pixels of your screen, so each pixel corresponds to a square containing multiple cells. When smarter scaling is turned off then a pixel is coloured black if it contains any live cells, and white otherwise. When smarter scaling is turned on then the blackness of each pixel is equal to the proportion of live cells it contains. So 'on' gives you a more accurate impression of what the pattern looks like from far away, but 'off' lets you spot small patterns like gliders even when you are zoomed out a long way.

[TheWayOfTheCon]

I've seen the word "bespoke" used as an adjective in a few LifeWiki articles, what does it mean?

[I6_I6]

I've seen the word "bespoke" used as an adjective in a few LifeWiki articles, what does it mean?

It basically means something was custom-made/designed for a very specific function.

[PK22]

I've seen the word "bespoke" used as an adjective in a few LifeWiki articles, what does it mean?

Bespoke, in a general context, means created individually to serve a specific set of requirements - e.g a custom-tailored suit.
Examples from LifeWiki:

there are several 'bespoke' syntheses for unnatural objects such as Snarks and syringes

This means that the syntheses were manually created by a human rather than automatically generated by a program.

obtained by discovering a bespoke period-7 oscillator to liberate a glider from a p14 banana sparker by James Pascua.

This means that rather than using a general-purpose p7 oscillator/sparker, a search was done to specifically find a period-7 oscillator that could complete the gun.

Life128 and vlife are bespoke algorithms designed by Adam P. Goucher and implemented in C++, used for soup-searching

This means that the algorithms were created for the specific purpose of soup searching.

[Rhombicubocta]

Does 54P23 count as having stable support since the blinker is rephased and can be interpreted as part of the rotor?

Code: Select all

x = 20, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
4bo$4b3o5bo$7bo4bo$6b2o4bo2$18b2o$2b2o14bo$2bo13bobo$4bo11b2o$3b2o6bo
$2bo6b3o$bob2o4bobo$o2bobo5bo$2o2bo2$15b2o$8b2o5bobo$9bo7bo$6b3o8b2o$
6bo!

[I6_I6]

Does 54P23 count as having stable support since the blinker is rephased and can be interpreted as part of the rotor?

Code: Select all

x = 20, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
4bo$4b3o5bo$7bo4bo$6b2o4bo2$18b2o$2b2o14bo$2bo13bobo$4bo11b2o$3b2o6bo
$2bo6b3o$bob2o4bobo$o2bobo5bo$2o2bo2$15b2o$8b2o5bobo$9bo7bo$6b3o8b2o$
6bo!

Even if it's part of the rotor and gets rephased, the blinker is still part of the supports, so I don't think 54P23 should count as having stable supports. It wouldn't be a HF hassler anymore if you count the blinker as part of the active region.

Where can I find basic single-channel recipes?
What's the cheapest single-channel recipe for building 2 blocks on the standard elbow lane and for pushing and pulling blocks? I need it for a weird sawtooth I'm building.

[NNlk05]

Where can I find basic single-channel recipes?
What's the cheapest single-channel recipe for building 2 blocks on the standard elbow lane and for pushing and pulling blocks? I need it for a weird sawtooth I'm building.

I think you can pull it out of the pslparse database somehow.

[speedydelete]

Where can I find basic single-channel recipes?
What's the cheapest single-channel recipe for building 2 blocks on the standard elbow lane and for pushing and pulling blocks? I need it for a weird sawtooth I'm building.

You may find them in https://gitlab.com/apgoucher/slmake/-/b ... eks/pp.txt.

[Life73]

Is any of you interested in diehards?

[Life73]

https://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic ... ds#p232501

[MDA]

Welcome to the forums!

In this case, Life73, the forum rules state that you should

[…]

[…] not post multiple messages consecutively in the same thread without a good reason. If you made the most recent post on a thread and you have something short to add on the same topic, please edit your previous post instead of making a new one.

[…]

Replying to the question you made here, engineered diehards almost always contain Simkin glider guns and sawtooths. They are built the way they are because that permits them to have a longer lifespan before dying out completely.

Natural diehards do exist, but the vast majority last less than 1,000 generations, while engineered diehards can last for indescribable amounts of time. Though it is technically possible to code a hill-climbing approach for finding diehards, such a method would probably be quite inefficient, as modifying a diehard seldom results in another diehard, let alone one of a longer lifespan.

You may also want to review forum rule 3b (regarding your post in the Engineered Diehards thread):

[…]

Do not post in topics that have been inactive for over a year without good reason.

[…]

Additionally, both of your posts are offtopic in this thread, which is for the discussion of oscillators in Conway’s Game of Life.

[otismo]

Can anyone think of how to make an Eater for the Leaf Bug please? (read great post above)

[NNlk05]

Can anyone think of how to make an Eater for the Leaf Bug please? (read great post above)

Steps:

1. Get a collision involving the Leaf Bug and a bait object to emit a glider.
2. Append a G-to-H
3. Build a horribly complex H conduit chain that clean up add the ash and...
4. ... rebuild the bait object.
5. You're done.

TL;DR: You can, but it requires an unholy amount of effort to do so.