This qualifies as useless, since we already have plenty of syntheses for Gosper's p30 glider gun but I've been obsessed with the puzzle for a couple of days of finding a minimal predecessor in terms of bounding box and cell count. Maybe somebody else can improve this.
I see this as a partial order on (max dimension, min dimension, cell count), so all of these are incomparable. Ideally, though I'd like something fitting in a 36x3 bounding box or smaller with 25 or fewer cells.
First attempt and the only one to shrink the width below 36. I imagine the cell count of 31 can be reduced, but the bounding box is too big to be interesting.
Code: Select all
x = 32, y = 7, rule = B3/S23
2o$o2b2o$bobob2o20b2obo$bo25bo2b2o$2obobo21b2ob2o$3bo23bobo$28b4o!
Next 21 cells with a 36x5 bounding box.
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x = 36, y = 5, rule = B3/S23
26bo$8bobo16b2ob2o2bo$9bo17bobo4b2o$2o4b2o$bo6b3o!
Next I can shave off the top row on the right but I need to add a cell. So 22 cells with a 36x4 bounding box.
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x = 36, y = 4, rule = B3/S23
8bobo15b3o2bo2b2o$2o7bo15bobob2o4bo$bo4b2o$8b3o!
Finally, I can shave it further, but I need to add more cells. So 26 cells with a 36x3 bounding box. (This is also a little more interesting in that the left block stabilizer appears spontaneously.)
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x = 36, y = 3, rule = B3/S23
o2bo2bobo$b4ob7o12bobobo4b2o$26b3ob2o3bo!
One observation is that starting patterns for the queen bee that lie entirely on one side of the center row (including the row) make it possible to avoid extending the bounding box beyond that determined by block placement.