Version 0.8.x

[Nathaniel]

Version beta 0.8.0 was uploaded today. The following changes since beta 0.7.0 have been made:

• The image creation feature should now behave better for very large and complex patterns in a variety of ways. In particular, if you try to save an image that is really large, you are now given an error message *before* it tries to create the image, so that it doesn't lock up your browser while it thinks about it.
• Added xoff and yoff querystring parameters for image.aspx (so xoff=2 shifts the pattern to the right by 2 cells, for example). The allows, in conjunction with the already-existing w and h parameters, more customizable padding options.
• Added px and py querystring parameters for image.aspx. px gives an x-offset in pixels of the drawn image, in case you don't want the image and its grid to start drawing from the top-left corner. py behaves similarly for a y-offset.
• You can now save animated GIFs using the applet. For them you have to specify the width and height of the image (in cells) because the bounding box of the pattern may change as it animates. You also can specify an X and Y offset, which describes how far to the right and down the pattern should be shifted in the image. The X Panning and Y Panning options specify how many cells in the X and Y directions the animation should pan over the course of the animation. So for an oscillator, you would set both of those to 0. For a lightweight spaceship moving to the left, you would set X Panning to -2 (if animating over 4 generations) and Y Panning to 0.
• Regular (non-animated) GIFs saved through the tool now have better colour palettes - the images used to be quite grainy, but this is no longer the case. This problem persists if you create a GIF using the image.aspx method.
• You can now set the grid width to be 0, 1, or 2. At far out zoom levels, the grid is auto-thinned accordingly to prevent the cells from being completely covered. The default thickness is 1.
• The pop-up that used to be titled "Display Settings" has been split into "Display Settings" and "Preferences".
• A bug involving creating images when zoomed way out with cells drawn as circles has been fixed.
• You can now draw a line of dead cells by clicking and dragging, similar to how you can click and drag to draw a line of alive cells
• Added a "clear" button to the bottom-right box that allows you to clear the Life board.
• Added a "Warp speed" button to the bottom-right box that does pretty much what it says.

[Nathaniel]

Version beta 0.8.1 was uploaded today. The following bugfixes since beta 0.8.0 have been made:

• The "Save to Online Database" feature was a little broken in the last update. This is now fixed.
• Safari up until now hasn't been playing nicely with the website, causing the controls at the bottom-right corner of the page to not display. Since there genuinely is no fix for this yet (Safari and Java just don't get along in that respect), I have added a "compatability mode" to the website. When accessing the page via Safari, this mode is automatically enabled and it moves the controls to the top-right corner of the page. Some other display issues are tweaked in compatability mode as well. You can force compatability mode to be on by adding "c=1" to the querystring as follows: http://www.conwaylife.com?c=1

[Nathaniel]

Version beta 0.8.2 was uploaded today. The following bugfixes since beta 0.8.1 have been made:

• Compatibility mode is turned on by default in all Mac browsers now, since Mac Firefox has the same problems as Safari
• You can now turn off compatibility mode for browsers that it's turned on for by default - specify ?c=0 in the querystring to do so
• A bunch of bugs involving saving and loading patterns with different rules have been fixed. In particular, when saving a pattern with different rules, those rules are saved along with the pattern. Also, when loading a pattern with different rules, the "Options -> Rules" dialog box now updates appropriately.
• The other common format of rulestrings is now accepted as well (which looks like B3/S23 for Conway's Life). Up until now, only the 23/3 format was allowed