bprentice wrote:The LifeViewer is a new feature of the forum and should have been introduced as an option for future posts only.
Just to report a different perspective: I was really happy to see the "Show in Viewer" links become available in older threads. Those links substantially solve a technical difficulty I've been having with many of the discussions on the Other Cellular Automata board.
In many cases -- such as
this one, just to take a random example -- I'd really like to see quickly what the posted patterns look like. If they look like something I'd be interested in investigating further, then I'll be much more likely to install the rule table.
I can't just copy and paste patterns into Golly, because each thread tends to have its own rule (or three, in the above case) which I probably haven't installed -- so Golly will refuse to load the pattern and will throw annoying errors, unless I take a detour and edit the rule string with a text editor.
Alternatively, I used to have to go find where the rule was posted, often buried in the middle of a several-page thread, install it in my copy of Golly, and finally come back and copy out the pattern -- just to see what it looked like! Many times that seemed like too much of a time investment, since it
might turn out not to be anything I'd be interested in anyway -- there was no easy way to tell.
Now I can get a decent preview picture with just a single click. The colors may not be accurate, but that doesn't seem likely to confuse anyone -- something similar happens in Golly if the Invert Colors option is set, for example. By the time exact colors matter, I'll make the investment to install the rule table.
bprentice wrote:When constructing new posts, each member should be given the option to either use it if they consider it useful or not use it if [they] don't. To force the use of the LifeViewer on all past posts is both ridiculous and annoying.
Luckily there doesn't seem to be any coercion occurring. If pattern-containing code blocks were getting indiscriminately converted into viewers -- taking up more screen space and CPU time and so on -- that would certainly be annoying in some cases.
To get an inline viewer, people have to use the "viewer" tag -- just as you suggest, that will never show up in old postings unless someone goes back and edits them.
The only difference in old postings is that a new link is being provided -- in a blank area of the code-block header line, so it doesn't take up any additional screen space. Everyone is free to click or not click on that link, as they see fit. I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally really like having the new option available.
