Create your own terminology

[Saka]

A thread for some random life terminology you made/make.
Hippogriff: A stator-less spaceship
Hiver: A spaceship that pushes hives instead of loaves
Weightships: *WSS
Emulator Ship ("Emus"): A spaceship in which the front end produces sparks similar to that of weightships
Expanding Rake: A rake of a spaceship which expands in width
Slug: Hard to explain, a spaceship/oscillator that moves like this:

Code: Select all

x = 12, y = 8, rule = B3567/S15678
2b7o$2b7o$10o$12o$12o$10o$2b7o$2b7o!

Stripey: A pattern that looks like one in LongLife
Clouds: An exploding (Though not diamond shaped) pattern
Pseudocorder: A spaceship which looks like an "explosion"
Superstable: A pattern that appears to explode but is in fact stable
Hyperstable: A pattern that will not change no matter what

[muzik]

Corderoid: any spaceship based off of a puffer or unstable moving pattern such as a switch engine (Life), 5c/190 thing (PedLife), MTEK (tDryLife), etc.

[Kazyan]

Tc: Orthogonal c. A speed of one orthogonal cell per generation.
Xc: Diagonal c. A speed of one diagonal cell per generation.

For example, a glider would be an Xc/4 spaceship, *WSSs are Tc/2 spaceships, and the waterbear is 18Tc/79 + 5Xc/79. That last one's awkward, so the usual c notation is better there. I would simply find it concise to have a defined orthogonal and diagonal speed of light.

[drc]

Tc: Orthogonal c. A speed of one orthogonal cell per generation.
Xc: Diagonal c. A speed of one diagonal cell per generation.

I usually denote this as, for example, gliders would be c/4d, and LWSSes as c/2o. D=Diagonal and O=Orthogonal. Knightships don't need a suffix in my notation, because it's recognized by the (x,y) at the beginning.

[muzik]

Tc: Orthogonal c. A speed of one orthogonal cell per generation.
Xc: Diagonal c. A speed of one diagonal cell per generation.

I usually denote this as, for example, gliders would be c/4d, and LWSSes as c/2o. D=Diagonal and O=Orthogonal. Knightships don't need a suffix in my notation, because it's recognized by the (x,y) at the beginning.

Knightships (perfectly knihtwise ones) could still be notated with a regular speed though. The fastest Knightship speed would be c/6, so almost knightship (if stabilised) could be Kc/6.

[Rocknlol]

Hippogriff: A stator-less spaceship

How would a spaceship have a stator in the first place?

[Saka]

Hippogriff: A stator-less spaceship

How would a spaceship have a stator in the first place?

It's hard to explain. Moon has stator of 0, the glider has 1 stator. Forget it.

[toroidalet]

In that case, would a stator on a spaceship be a cell that is alive and stays alive for the entire period of the spaceship?

[Sphenocorona]

I think the best equivalent of a spaceship "stator" cell is a cell in a ship of period N which is alive for N consecutive generations (not moving with the ship each period, so it will be left behind eventually). However, this would mean that a c/1 ship like the Moon would be entirely made of "stator" cells (as every cell stays alive for 1 generation and the ship is period 1), which... is a bit counter-intuitive in a way.

[GUYTU6J]

How could these be translated into Chinese...

[David]

How could these be translated into Chinese...

still life : 停物
oscillator : 振動子
spaceship : 宇宙船
gun : 銃
puffer : 機關車

[GUYTU6J]

In our Chinese forum,we decided:
still life 静物
oscillator 振荡器
spaceship 飞船
gun 枪
puffer 播种机
rake 洒水车

EDIT I made a mistake.

[Saka]

Moving still life: A moving object that consists of a wickstretcher and a backend.

Spinner: An oscillator or spaceship that moves by rotating/spinning

Doop: A slow, funny-looking spaceship

Minim: A rule with a short rulestring

Phoenixer: A Bxxx/S rule

[Rhombic]

t- prefix for any rule with S2-i34q
y- prefix for any rule with S2-i35y

Eight for any S238
Pedestrian for any B38 (regardless of whether traffic lights are possible)
"Just" for any B2-a

and quite a few others that I keep forgetting


Then, a "translucent" blinker/beacon/oscillator reaction is a transparent reaction that returns the object to where it was but in a different phase than what it would have been in otherwise.

[AbhpzTa]

Canonical orientations: See this link
Driving orientations: Rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise
Riding orientations: Rotated 180 degrees
Parachuting orientations: Rotated 90 degrees clockwise
Flipping orientations: Flipped N-S
Flipped driving orientations: Flipped NW-SE
Flipped riding orientations: Flipped W-E
Flipped parachuting orientations: Flipped NE-SW

LifeWiki:
R-pentomino = riding , gen 0
B-heptomino = flipped parachuting , gen 0
Herschel = riding , gen 0
Century = flipped parachuting , gen -3
Bookend = flipped parachuting , gen -2
Dove = parachuting , gen 0
Pi-heptomino = driving (or flipped driving), gen 0
Queen bee = canonical (or flipping), gen 10
Block-and-glider = driving , gen 0
Wing = flipping , gen 2
Glider = canonical , gen 4n(n: any integer) (or flipped parachuting , gen 4n+2)

[gmc_nxtman]

I propose that this still life:

Code: Select all

x = 9, y = 7, rule = B3/S23
8bo$o5b3o$3o2bo$3bo2bo$2bob2obo$2bo4bo$b2o4b2o!

should be named "handstand". I doubt the name will have any common use, however.

[muzik]

looks like a trampoline or spider to me.

A sentient trampoline that walks like a spider and attacks people, however, is now something that shall haunt me in my dreams.

[HartmutHolzwart]

I think the best equivalent of a spaceship "stator" cell is a cell in a ship of period N which is alive for N consecutive generations (not moving with the ship each period, so it will be left behind eventually). However, this would mean that a c/1 ship like the Moon would be entirely made of "stator" cells (as every cell stays alive for 1 generation and the ship is period 1), which... is a bit counter-intuitive in a way.

Greyships are examples of spaceships consisting mainly of stator cells

[Mr. Missed Her]

I second Saka's term for _WSS. I came up with "weightship" myself, though I suppose Saka could have too.

[Rhombic]

I think the best equivalent of a spaceship "stator" cell is a cell in a ship of period N which is alive for N consecutive generations (not moving with the ship each period, so it will be left behind eventually). However, this would mean that a c/1 ship like the Moon would be entirely made of "stator" cells (as every cell stays alive for 1 generation and the ship is period 1), which... is a bit counter-intuitive in a way.

It's not that counter intuitive. After all, with moon you just see the 4-cell pattern effectively reforming and dying, which is pretty static. Rotors show complex behaviour that moves the stator once per period. It makes sense

[muzik]

Licking - an eating reaction that does not destroy either of the participants. As in unix

[Mr. Missed Her]

If oblique ships are "knightships," the we could call orthogonal ships "rookships" and diagonal ships "biships." I just realized now, from seeing the word typed, that you could get the idea that "biships" means something like two ships fused together. But "bishopships" sounds awkward.

[Saka]

Towers: Those huge vertical spaceships like caterpillar and centipede

[itaibn]

I invented some terminology that generalizes a whole bunch of concepts like "spaceship" and "wick" in this thread.

[Rhombic]

I think the best equivalent of a spaceship "stator" cell is a cell in a ship of period N which is alive for N consecutive generations (not moving with the ship each period, so it will be left behind eventually). However, this would mean that a c/1 ship like the Moon would be entirely made of "stator" cells (as every cell stays alive for 1 generation and the ship is period 1), which... is a bit counter-intuitive in a way.

Superstator cell:
Cell in a period N spaceship that survives for A consecutive generations, with A>N. This occurs often!

Hyperstator cell:
Cell in a period N spaceship that survives for B consecutive generations, for B>=2N. This is less common but still frequent. It only happens when a stator cell becomes either a stator or a superstator after the full spaceship period.

In this example, the top cell is a 8-generation hyperstator:

Code: Select all

x = 6, y = 6, rule = B2c3-i4qyz8/S23-n4-jqrtz5r6c
2bo$2ob2o$2b4o$4b2o$5bo$4b2o!