Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 July 2018

For general discussion about Conway's Game of Life.
User avatar
muzik
Posts: 5614
Joined: January 28th, 2016, 2:47 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by muzik » October 16th, 2017, 4:22 am

Still haven't included the names for the new types of knightship.

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by dvgrn » October 16th, 2017, 9:01 am

muzik wrote:Still haven't included the names for the new types of knightship.
In a lot of cases there will end up being a lot more detail in a LifeWiki article than will fit in a Life Lexicon entry.
No one has ever seen an elementary any-of-those-names in Conway's Life, or really even figured out an effective way to search for them yet. There's just a single known example of a camelship and an ibisship, and I've never seen anyone actually refer to the Gemini and Gemini 3 that way except in the LifeWiki article.

If and when anyone can say "ibisship" in a forum posting and expect to be understood to mean a (5x,x) spaceship, then it will be a commonly used term worth documenting in the Lexicon... after a decent span of years.

Until then it's just kind of a solution searching for a problem. Admittedly this kind of thing is a totally arbitrary judgment call on my part, but it's a good rule of thumb, and keeps the Life Lexicon workload down to slightly more manageable levels.

By contrast, I put the tremi-Snark in immediately, because the term has already seen quite a bit of use on the gun-building thread, and the odds are really good that no other common name for it will ever bubble up -- especially if "tremi-Snark" is in the Lexicon!

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by dvgrn » October 16th, 2017, 8:09 pm

Sokwe wrote:Nothing particularly important here. I just read through the 'c' page and have these minor suggestions:
  • :c/5 spaceship: remove the provided example (since it already has its own entry in the lexicon) and add

    Code: Select all

    For other examples see {58P5H1V1}, {67P5H1V1}, {86P5H1V1} and {spider}.
  • :c/6 spaceship: add link to {56P6H1V0}.
  • :Caterpillar: maybe change "pis" to "pi-heptominoes".
  • :chaotic growth: I think "other that" should be changed to "other than that".
  • :clock: change "But it's" to "It is".
  • :clock insertion: "sabotaged eater" should be "sabotaged glider", I think.
  • :crown: should probably say "by a {caterer}" instead of "by {caterer}".
Thanks for these! I hope you can look through a few more of the letters -- no doubt there are similar things still to be found in the other sections. Except maybe for j, x, y, and z, which haven't changed much... That "sabotaged eater" looks like one of my mistakes for sure: for some reason I'm forever saying "eater" when I mean "glider", and vice versa. Crossed wires somewhere.

I wasn't quick enough with a rebuild to get these corrections into the Golly 3.1 candidate release. It takes at least a couple of hours to do a complete rebuild from the source text file, because there are several stages: non-word-wrapped to word-wrapped to initial HTML to Golly HTML. And then somewhere in the middle there are a number of assumptions in Stephen Silver's HTML-making script that are no longer quite completely true. The amount of custom patching has been gradually increasing lately.

-- But it hasn't been quite worth the investment yet to jump in and figure out how to adjust Stephen's old C code to make the build completely automatic again. With any luck I or someone else will manage that for Release 28.

Anyway, people can have a look at Life Lexicon Release 27 using Golly 3.1 now. I'll delay posting the full Release 27 to conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon/ for a few weeks at least, in hopes that people will read through the non-C pages and hunt down a few more typos. Thanks in advance!

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by dvgrn » October 25th, 2017, 10:25 pm

dvgrn wrote:Anyway, people can have a look at Life Lexicon Release 27 using Golly 3.1 now. I'll delay posting the full Release 27 to conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon/ for a few weeks at least, in hopes that people will read through the non-C pages and hunt down a few more typos. Thanks in advance!
Okay, now it's the next square-number day in October, the last one we're going to get this year... Has anyone been inspired to read through another letter's worth of Lexicon, looking for inaccuracies? Haven't gotten many reports lately, but I'm fairly sure there are still typos out there, at least.

Can I do anything to help with the inspiration? Post here to sign up for a letter in advance -- I could use some fresh eyes on A and B, but if everybody just reads A and B that doesn't help so much.

Might need someone familiar with historic small guns to get through all the recent new material on the P page.

User avatar
Saka
Posts: 3627
Joined: June 19th, 2015, 8:50 pm
Location: Indonesia
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by Saka » November 7th, 2017, 8:38 am

Was browsing, and the pattern dot-grid thing for 295P5H1V1 seems to be wrong. When pasted into golly, it is this:

Code: Select all

x = 52, y = 52, rule = B3/S23
12b2o$5b2o4b2obobo$4b3o4b4o$3b2o6b2o5bo$2b2o2b2o3bo2bo2bo$b2o5bo7bo2b
2o$b2obo3b4o$4bo3b2o2b2obo$5b3o4bobo$6b2o3b2o2bo$6bo5bo$b4obo2bo2bo3bo
$b3o3b5o2b7obo$obo4bo10bo2b2o$3obo3bo3bo5b3o$7bobo2bo7b2o$bo3bo5b2o8b
2o2bobo$4bo7bo8b3obob3o$3bo8b3o6bo4bo$5bo6bobo5bobo$5bo6bob2o3bo4bo$
13bob4o3bo5bo2bo$12b2o2b2obobo3bob3o$17bo6bo2b3o3b3o$20bo2bo6b2o$16b2o
4bo2bo10b2o$18bo13bo3bo$16b2o4b2o8bo$17bo3b3o8bobobobo$17bo4b2o8bo5b2o
$24bo8bo2b3o$21bo2bo8bo8bo$26b4o8b2o3bo$23bo6b2o6b2o3bo$23bo4bo12bo$
23bo15bo$25b2obobo7bo2bo$25bo4bo9b3o$28b3ob2o2bo3bo3bob2o$29bo2b2obo5b
o3bo2bo$37b2o2bo3bo$34bob2ob2obo2b2o3bo$31bo5bo3bo7bobo$32b2o12b2o3bo$
38bo7b2o$39b3o3b2o2bo$38bo2bob3o$38bo4b2o$39bo$42bo2bo$41bo$42b2o!
There seem to be a whole lot of these mistakes.

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by dvgrn » November 7th, 2017, 9:53 am

Progress!

Nathaniel has uploaded the latest draft of the Lexicon to its new official home, http://conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon/. Please try browsing from there. I'm calling this "alpha Release 28", and planning for a final Release 28 by the end of the year. You can use the "browse online" link in the second paragraph, or download one of the ZIP files and test them out.

So far I know of the following items that need fixing in the alpha Release 28:

:soup: Fix "filing" to "filling".
:chaotic growth: The "other than that" phrase seems awkward.
:universe: Has a "TBD:" to be removed.

No doubt there are more. Now would be a great time for any proofreader-minded folks to choose a letter, go through the entries with a fine-tooth comb, and report any details that need patching up.
Saka wrote:Was browsing, and the pattern dot-grid thing for 295P5H1V1 seems to be wrong. When pasted into golly, it is this...
There seem to be a whole lot of these mistakes.
You're looking at the text version of the Lexicon, I take it? That's what will happen in Golly if you select patterns starting with the first character of the ASCII text, instead of the first character of the line (a tab character).

Golly interprets any whitespace character as an empty cell. So unless you select full lines, you end up copying patterns with an extra blank column at the left -- except for the first line. There are a few patterns such as the superfountain that can survive that minor mangling, but not very many!

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by dvgrn » January 4th, 2018, 1:08 pm

dvgrn wrote:Progress!
...
Now would be a great time for any proofreader-minded folks to choose a letter, go through the entries with a fine-tooth comb, and report any details that need patching up.
More progress...

At the end of 2017, Life Lexicon Release 28 officially went from "alpha" to "beta", and will soon be rolled out to replace the November 5 alpha version on conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon.

The above link is intentionally broken, because the beta hasn't been copied to that location quite yet. I'd like to get a few more eyes on the beta Release 28 before it moves over there officially.

Instead, there's a browsable preview of the final beta Release 28 on Github. EDIT: Have temporarily changed the link to point to the single-page version instead of the multipage version -- it seems that inter-document multipage links don't work with the "htmlpreview" feature. They should work fine when the Lexicon moves to conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon/.

There's also a second "view online" link on the Lexicon home page now to make it clearer that browsing directly is also an option. The home page is also where the various downloadable ZIP files are available.

Huge thanks to dbell, who provided a very large fraction of the new material for this beta release, and also for the alpha Release 28 in November. Release 28 wouldn't be half as up-to-date without all those contributions. As y'all can see -- ahem! -- there haven't been a lot of proofreader contributions on this thread since November.

So if anyone has made a New Year's resolution to help out more with the Lexicon, now would be a great time to review and report!

So far I've only found a "(C)" and an "August 2017" in lex.html that I had meant to change, along with the serious multi-page link problem that Apple Bottom has pointed out. If you see anything else wrong, please let me know.

User avatar
Apple Bottom
Posts: 1034
Joined: July 27th, 2015, 2:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by Apple Bottom » January 4th, 2018, 2:25 pm

dvgrn wrote:So if anyone has made a New Year's resolution to help out more with the Lexicon, now would be a great time to review and report!
Right off the bat, I can see a slight misalignment in the "2-glider collision" lemma, in the first row ("nothing") of the table included.

The "2-engine Cordership" entry says that the 9-glider synthesis is due to Luka Okanishi. Is that who AbhpzTa is, then? Or is this a remnant of a different article?

Internal links are broken if they point to a different page of the Lexicon. For instance, under "0hd Demonoid" (the very first entry), "Demonoid" links to lex_1.htm#demonoid rather than lex_d.htm#demonoid.
If you speak, your speech must be better than your silence would have been. — Arabian proverb

Catagolue: Apple Bottom • Life Wiki: Apple Bottom • Twitter: @_AppleBottom_

Proud member of the Pattern Raiders!

User avatar
Majestas32
Posts: 549
Joined: November 20th, 2017, 12:22 pm
Location: 'Merica

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by Majestas32 » January 4th, 2018, 3:08 pm

Apple Bottom wrote:
dvgrn wrote:So if anyone has made a New Year's resolution to help out more with the Lexicon, now would be a great time to review and report!
The "2-engine Cordership" entry says that the 9-glider synthesis is due to Luka Okanishi. Is that who AbhpzTa is, then? Or is this a remnant of a different article?
Yes, at least judging from various Lifewiki articles and PotY.
Searching:
b2-a5k6n7cs12-i3ij4k5j8
b2-a3c7cs12-i

Currently looking for help searching these rules.

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by dvgrn » January 4th, 2018, 4:30 pm

Apple Bottom wrote:Internal links are broken if they point to a different page of the Lexicon. For instance, under "0hd Demonoid" (the very first entry), "Demonoid" links to lex_1.htm#demonoid rather than lex_d.htm#demonoid.
True enough, and very strange. I've never seen the automated build system break the internal links in that way before. Might have to go in and troubleshoot Stephen Silver's build system to fix this properly, but if that takes too much time I might write a quick script to verify and patch the multi-page links.

Until the repaired version is uploaded, anyone who wants to review should be able to look at the single-page version. I'm not seeing any problems with those links.

Release 28 single-page Life Lexicon link

EDIT: It turns out this is not a problem with the actual Life Lexicon build, but rather with the "http://htmlpreview.github.io/?" prefix needed to display the actual web page instead of the HTML text. If you download and extract the multipage ZIP file and open lex.htm from there, there shouldn't be any issues. (?)

I'll ask Nathaniel if he can move the Release 28 beta over to conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon sooner rather than later -- that should take care of the linking problem.

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by dvgrn » January 13th, 2018, 11:42 am

dvgrn wrote:I'll ask Nathaniel if he can move the Release 28 beta over to conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon sooner rather than later -- that should take care of the linking problem.
Release 28 is now live in its new official location.

I'll collect typos and factual mistakes and fixes to links and that kind of thing for a few more weeks, so please report anything like that you see. That kind of trivial update may happen from time to time without changing the release number.

I'm also still collecting ideas for new terms and definitions. However, adding new terms _would_ bump up the release number, and I'm not currently planning on putting out a new release more than once a year.

User avatar
Apple Bottom
Posts: 1034
Joined: July 27th, 2015, 2:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by Apple Bottom » January 14th, 2018, 7:12 am

dvgrn wrote:Release 28 is now live in its new official location.

I'll collect typos and factual mistakes and fixes to links and that kind of thing for a few more weeks, so please report anything like that you see. That kind of trivial update may happen from time to time without changing the release number.

I'm also still collecting ideas for new terms and definitions. However, adding new terms _would_ bump up the release number, and I'm not currently planning on putting out a new release more than once a year.
Excellent, allow me to be the first to say congrats on wrapping up the new release. :)

Just spotted a discrepancy -- the table under "Herschel conduit" seems to flip conduits horizontally, so x offsets are negated compared to the conduits' own entries. For instance, Bx125 has an offset of (9, -17) in the table, but (-9, -17) in its article; Fx119 has an offset of (-20, 14) in the table, but (20, 14) in its article; and so on.

Also, in the entry for Rx202, there's a whitespace missing before the plus here: "It is made up of two elementary conduits, HR143B +BFx59H."

In the entry for Bx222, it says that the conduit produces a "backward-traveling inverted Herschel"; should this be an "inverted Herschel rotated 180 degrees" or so? (Herschels don't travel, do they.)

In the entry for B60, the output Herschel's offset is given as "(×,y)".
If you speak, your speech must be better than your silence would have been. — Arabian proverb

Catagolue: Apple Bottom • Life Wiki: Apple Bottom • Twitter: @_AppleBottom_

Proud member of the Pattern Raiders!

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by dvgrn » January 14th, 2018, 10:24 am

Apple Bottom wrote:Just spotted a discrepancy -- the table under "Herschel conduit" seems to flip conduits horizontally, so x offsets are negated compared to the conduits' own entries. For instance, Bx125 has an offset of (9, -17) in the table, but (-9, -17) in its article; Fx119 has an offset of (-20, 14) in the table, but (20, 14) in its article; and so on.
Good catch(es). That will be worth patching in a few weeks, along with whatever else anyone notices -- while still calling it "Release 28", since it's mostly changing all the release numbers and dates that takes the most fiddling around in the ZIP files. Thanks!

User avatar
Apple Bottom
Posts: 1034
Joined: July 27th, 2015, 2:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS 2018

Post by Apple Bottom » January 16th, 2018, 2:34 am

dvgrn wrote:Good catch(es). That will be worth patching in a few weeks, along with whatever else anyone notices -- while still calling it "Release 28", since it's mostly changing all the release numbers and dates that takes the most fiddling around in the ZIP files. Thanks!
Cool. :)

BTW, F166 claims to be an elementary conduit in the Lexicon (which is why the wiki entry did as well) -- may want to fix that as well.
If you speak, your speech must be better than your silence would have been. — Arabian proverb

Catagolue: Apple Bottom • Life Wiki: Apple Bottom • Twitter: @_AppleBottom_

Proud member of the Pattern Raiders!

User avatar
Apple Bottom
Posts: 1034
Joined: July 27th, 2015, 2:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by Apple Bottom » January 16th, 2018, 5:23 pm

Apologies for double-posting--

The output B-heptominoes in the pattern for HFx58B have a misaligned cell each, as far as I can tell. They look like this:

Code: Select all

x = 52, y = 22, rule = B3/S23
9bo30bo$10b3o26b3o$13bo24bo$2o10b2o24b2o10b2o$bo48bo$bobo44bobo$2b2o
44b2o$21bo8bo$21b2o6b2o$22b2o4b2o$22bo6bo$21bo8bo2$2bo46bo$2bobo42bobo
$2b3o42b3o$4bo11b2o17b2o10bo$16bo18b2o$17b3o19b2o$19bo19bo$40b3o$42bo!
but should look like this:

Code: Select all

x = 52, y = 22, rule = B3/S23
9bo30bo$10b3o26b3o$13bo24bo$2o10b2o24b2o10b2o$bo48bo$bobo44bobo$2b2o
44b2o$21bo8bo$21b2o6b2o$22b2o4b2o$21b2o6b2o3$2bo46bo$2bobo42bobo$2b3o
42b3o$4bo11b2o17b2o10bo$16bo18b2o$17b3o19b2o$19bo19bo$40b3o$42bo!
If you speak, your speech must be better than your silence would have been. — Arabian proverb

Catagolue: Apple Bottom • Life Wiki: Apple Bottom • Twitter: @_AppleBottom_

Proud member of the Pattern Raiders!

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by dvgrn » January 16th, 2018, 5:48 pm

Apple Bottom wrote:The output B-heptominoes in the pattern for HFx58B have a misaligned cell each, as far as I can tell.
Well... you're absolutely right... but I'm probably not going to fix this... but I may add a note like

"The alternate form of the B-heptomino is shown. This is normal for elementary conduit inputs and outputs, since many of these conduits do in fact produce this alternate form."

The alternate form is described in the :B-heptomino: entry (which comes from the old Lexicon, I didn't write it). Yes, technically the alternate form is not really a B-heptomino, it just has the same descendants and is usually referred to with the same name.

There's a separate issue with your quoted patterns, not related and it doesn't really matter much except as something to watch out for. The patterns show a different one-cell misalignment in the top line. This is caused by copying and pasting from the Life Lexicon starting from the first character of the ASCII pattern, instead of the beginning of the first line containing the ASCII pattern.

User avatar
Apple Bottom
Posts: 1034
Joined: July 27th, 2015, 2:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- NEW CALL FOR PROOFREADERS

Post by Apple Bottom » January 17th, 2018, 4:19 am

dvgrn wrote:The alternate form is described in the :B-heptomino: entry (which comes from the old Lexicon, I didn't write it). Yes, technically the alternate form is not really a B-heptomino, it just has the same descendants and is usually referred to with the same name.
Oh, I never knew. Neat -- I learned something new again today.
dvgrn wrote:There's a separate issue with your quoted patterns, not related and it doesn't really matter much except as something to watch out for. The patterns show a different one-cell misalignment in the top line. This is caused by copying and pasting from the Life Lexicon starting from the first character of the ASCII pattern, instead of the beginning of the first line containing the ASCII pattern.
Oh, yes... that tends to bite me *every* *single* *time* I copy/paste a pattern from the Lexicon. I wonder if I shouldn't actually suggest that Golly handle this. :)
If you speak, your speech must be better than your silence would have been. — Arabian proverb

Catagolue: Apple Bottom • Life Wiki: Apple Bottom • Twitter: @_AppleBottom_

Proud member of the Pattern Raiders!

User avatar
Apple Bottom
Posts: 1034
Joined: July 27th, 2015, 2:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- Release 28

Post by Apple Bottom » February 11th, 2018, 8:58 am

Apologies for the bump-- here's some more issues-to-fix (well, one, for now; but I'll be editing this entry if I find more, until another reply is posted in the thread.)

Without further ado--
  • "Pianola breeder" has a superfluous "by" ("A series of patterns by by Paul Tooke").
Watch this space for updates!

EDIT: we seem to have found a more efficient solution. ;)
If you speak, your speech must be better than your silence would have been. — Arabian proverb

Catagolue: Apple Bottom • Life Wiki: Apple Bottom • Twitter: @_AppleBottom_

Proud member of the Pattern Raiders!

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by dvgrn » June 3rd, 2018, 12:14 am

As with the previous Release 28 beta, there is now a browsable preview of Life Lexicon Release 29 on Github. Have to get any last bugs out of this so it can be checked in to SourceForge in time for Golly 3.2.

I went ahead and built beta versions of all the ZIP files. They can be downloaded from the preview Life Lexicon home page -- might be useful if you want to review but prefer the multi-page HTML version.

Following the "view online" link from the second link above will get you to a preview of the multi-page version, but we discovered last time around that the preview isn't reliable. Internal links in the definitions don't correctly change to a different HTML page -- for example, if you click on a link for a term starting with "B" that's in a definition on the "A" page, the preview system will try to find the definition on the "A" page, and of course it isn't there. The real Lexicon (downloaded ZIP file, or live copy on conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon when we get to that point) won't have that problem.

Please proofread!

Here's the list of changes since Release 28. I hope that not too many unrecorded changes have found their way in, but we may possibly have fixed a few things here and there without remembering to record the details:

Code: Select all

1/5/2018:
Added link to {unknown fate} from :Collatz 5n+1 simulator:
Changed links in {Demonoid}
Added link to {self-constructing} in {half-baked knightship}
Changed "elementary" to "composite" for :F166: (contains HFx107B + {Bx59H})
:Orthogonoid:  fixed to say
After the child circuitry is complete, a previously constructed {Snark} in the parent is removed from the construction arm lane, converting it to a "destruction arm" that efficiently shoots down the previous constructor/reflector in the series.
Herschel conduits:  adjusted the table in :Herschel conduit: to match the coordinates...

2/8/2018:
Added example in :transparent lane: (NW31 has two transparent lane and one optional non-transparent one)
Edited :NW31: to link to :transparent lane: variant
Edited :pulse divider: to add link to :period multiplier:
Edited :trombone slide:

2/10/2018:
Edited :SW1T43: (should use direct NW31 link, not indirect NW31T120)

2/11/2018:
(AB) Fixed "by by" in :pianola breeder:

2/17/2018:  edited :search program:
edited :second glider domain:
edited :sliding block memory:
edited :statorless:
edited :switch: to add a sample one-time switch pattern that includes high-clearance syringe (though it's not technically needed in that pattern)
edited :syringe: to point to the pattern in :switch:

2/26/2018:  edited :Rx202:
edited :Bx222:
edited :B-heptomino:

2/28/2018:
(AB) Replaced S(X) with S(t) in {recursive filter}, per LifeWiki talk page

3/2/2018:  updated :toggle circuit: with smaller final catalyst, per Kazyan

3/5/2018:
(AB) Added {92P156}, using LifeWiki content.
(AB) Added {60P312}, using text previously shown here.
(AB) Added {p104 gun}, using text previously shown here.
(AB) Updated {quasar} with the "next oscillator in the series" previously shown here.
(AB) Added {Beluchenko's p37}, {Beluchenko's p51}, {Merzenich's p11}, {Merzenich's p18}, and {statorless p5}, using LifeWiki content.

3/7/2018:
(AB) Added {Sir Robin}.
(AB) Updated {knightship} to reflect {Sir Robin}'s discovery.

3/10/2018:
(AB) Very minor tweaks to {Osqrtlogt}.

3/17/2018:
(AB) Fixed {c/6 spaceship} to use "4n+2" rather than "4x+2", as the x gets converted to a "times" sign in the HTML version.

3/20/2018:
(AB) Grammar fix ("the the") in {intermitting glider gun}.

3/30/2018:
(AB) Clarify {speed of light}.

4/17/2018:
added long ship to pattern in :one-time turner:

4/27/2018:
:ruler:  Changed "May" to "April" 2005.
:RF28B:  found an "is" that should have been "are" -- reworded.

5/4/2018:
Added :PF35W:
:Fx176: Note the significantly smaller and faster middle PF35W stage for Fx176

5/9/2018:
back-ported LifeWiki additions to :180-degree kickback:

5/21/2018:
updated ASCII patterns for :p4 bumper: and :p7 bumper:

6/1/2018:
Added :bouncer: as synonym for color-changing glider reflector, including p5/6/7/8/15 bouncers
Added :p3 bumper:

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by dvgrn » June 4th, 2018, 6:10 pm

Things are looking good so far for Release 29. Tables look okay, links seem to be working, etc. Nathaniel has moved the beta copy of Release 29 over to what will be its final location:

http://conwaylife.com/ref/lexicon

So if anyone would like to check out the multi-page HTML version, it's no longer necessary to download an offline copy.

-- I haven't been able to stir up much volunteer interest in Lexicon proofreading on this thread lately. Maybe I just haven't said "please" often enough? I bet there are still a few embarrassing typos out there somewhere.

Anyone who can spare a short chunk of time for review, maybe post here the letter(s) you'll be reviewing (so nobody else duplicates your work) -- and then edit in any typos or anachronisms or other problems you find when you read through everything, test out the patterns, etc.

Here, I'll go first: will review X, Y, and Z.

EDIT: No problems found with X through Z.

-------------------------------------------------

Total changes made to source text so far, not yet reflected in online Lexicon:
(will keep updating this list)

Code: Select all

:pulsar:
Changed:
See also {pre-pulsar} and {pulsar quadrant}.
To:
See also {pre-pulsar}, {pulsar quadrant}, and {quasar}.

:Demonoid: removed duplicate word "completed", reworded HashLife-friendly Demonoid description to be future-proof

:bouncer:  added link to {p15 bouncer}

:bumper:  fixed a singular reflector that should have been plural

wildmyron
Posts: 1542
Joined: August 9th, 2013, 12:45 am
Location: Western Australia

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by wildmyron » June 4th, 2018, 11:57 pm

I had a look at the bumpers and bouncers and a few of the related edits. That looks good to me.

I'll read through 'W' and post comments here as I go.
  • :Washerwoman: has no discovery date - appears in Lifeline Vol 3 (Sept. 1971)
  • Reading through :wave: and some of the linked definitions seems to open a bit of a can of worms - :wave: states that "If the wave gets longer over time, the supporting patterns are wavestretchers." But it's not clear to me that the definition for :wavestretcher: actually implies that the moving wick is being stretched. The example does show a growing ship, but this seems to be mentioned as an incidental feature of the pattern, not an integral part of the definition. Then, the example pattern in :antstretcher: just confuses this even more, as previously mentioned by scorbie. The left hand diagonal component on its own seems to fit the definition for a :wickstretcher: (albeit a moving one) but the pattern in its entirety doesn't grow the wick / wave.
  • Further to this, :antstretcher: refers to "Any wickstretcher", with an example of a ship guiding a wave of ants, but :wickstretcher: and :wick: don't admit waves in their definition as they refer to stable or oscillating patterns with no mention of moving patterns - which is supported by the definition of :wave: referring to "wick-like". Additionally, :growing spaceship: specifically refers to extending a wick between the two parts, with no mention of wavestretchers as a type of growing spaceship (which they certainly seem to be).
  • :wavestretcher: also contains a reference to last year: "As of the end of 2017..." (Are you updating these with 2018 references?
  • :*WSS: and :fish: make no reference to each other - would be nice if they did as they mean the same thing
I don't know if you care to open that can of worms - I'm sure it would have been alluded to on the forums but I can't specifically point to any discussion about it.

Further items as warranted by the rest of 'W'.

Edit: Outside of 'W', I stumbled on :spaceship: and there's no mention of Sir Robin alongside all the other elementary spacehips

Edit 2: Added on last item, no further comments on 'W' from me.

P.S. how strictly are you sticking to British English? By way of example: there are 22 occurrences of travelling and 24 of traveling in the single html page version.
The 5S project (Smallest Spaceships Supporting Specific Speeds) is now maintained by AforAmpere. The latest collection is hosted on GitHub and contains well over 1,000,000 spaceships.

Semi-active here - recovering from a severe case of LWTDS.

User avatar
Macbi
Posts: 903
Joined: March 29th, 2009, 4:58 am

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by Macbi » June 5th, 2018, 3:39 am

I looked at U and V.

Under "universal constructor" it says that
it has not been proved that all possible glider fleets are constructible
Is this still the case? LifeWiki thinks that "anything that is glider synthesizable is also slow salvo synthesizable". Further down the page, the entry for "universal toolkit" suggests that the toolkits used in the demonoids are universal, which makes no sense if slow salvos can't construct every fleet.

It's weird that "UC" links to "universal constructor", but "URM" is linked to from "universal register machine".

Another "as of the end of 2017".

I didn't spot any errors under "V".

Sokwe
Moderator
Posts: 2645
Joined: July 9th, 2009, 2:44 pm

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by Sokwe » June 5th, 2018, 4:47 am

In the table under :spaceship, the first-discovered c/3 orthogonal ship should be 25P3H1V0.1.
-Matthias Merzenich

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10611
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by dvgrn » June 5th, 2018, 9:54 am

All good finds -- thanks very much!

I'm adjusting my plans: in a future posting on this thread, I'll quote my entire revised text for each definition, once I get a bunch of fixes done. That way people won't have to go dig through some future revision of the Lexicon to see if my changes are any good.

There are 20 letters of the alphabet to go (and I'm afraid they don't get any easier!) Who else wants one?

User avatar
Macbi
Posts: 903
Joined: March 29th, 2009, 4:58 am

Re: Life Lexicon update -- now Release 29, 2 June 2018

Post by Macbi » June 5th, 2018, 10:26 am

I did "T":

In "Tanner's p46":
The snakes can be replaced with eaters to form a slightly smaller version
Is "smaller" the right word? I'd just say that the stator was a different shape.

That's all I could find.

Post Reply