The Online Life-Like CA Soup Search

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When I click on the soup search script, it asks me for the location of a Python DLL file. Where is that file?

The file is called python26.dll, but it may be in any of a number of different locations depending on your machine. If you are on a Windows machine, check the following two locations, and slight variations on them:

If you are still unable to find python26.dll, you may download and extract this file and point Golly to it instead.

2. How do I run the script in a rule other than standard Life?

Just change the active rule in Golly before starting the script; go to "Control -> Set Rule..." and select the rule that you want the script to use. Keep in mind that the only rules supported by the script are those listed in the navigation toolbar to the left under "Census Results".

3. How can I view/create a census for a rule that isn't currently supported?

Ask on the forums. If the rule appears to be "censusable" (i.e., not chaotic and actually settles into small discernable stable patterns), then the site admin will likely (time permitting) add it to the list of supported rules.

4. What does the "Relative Frequency" column mean?

The "Relative Frequency" column tells you what proportion of the objects listed in that table are of the specified type. For example, if you are viewing the census results for Conway's Game of Life and are viewing both still lifes and oscillators, then the relative frequency listed for blinkers is with respect to all still lifes and oscillators. If you are viewing only oscillators, however, then the relative frequency listed is with respect only to all oscillators. The confidence intervals provided are 99%.

5. Why don't you keep lists of long-lived patterns for all supported rules?

Some rules do not have long-lived patterns recorded because they simply do not exhibit growth that is similar to that of Conway's Game of Life. For example, in the HighLife rule, there are small initial patterns that behave somewhat chaotically for several hundred thousand generations due to the replicator, and then explode into an unpredictable mess whose long-term behaviour is unknown. Lifespans in some other rules (such as Move) are not recorded because the script is not very good at estimating lifespans in those rules (yet).

6. Why don't the statistics shown to me by the script agree with the statistics on the server?

Information is only uploaded to the server from the script once every 15 minutes, so there is some lag in updating the statistics on the server.

7. Why doesn't the script work for me?

Your best bet for getting this solved is probably to ask on the forums (in particular, in this thread). People use many different types of computers and there are several (independent of this site) components that need to work together properly to make the script work. Importantly though, make sure that your version of Python is either 2.6.0 or 2.6.2 (not 2.6.1 or 3.x).