Golly not responding

Has something gone haywire? Let us know about it!
Post Reply
User avatar
Entity Valkyrie 2
Posts: 1756
Joined: February 26th, 2019, 7:13 pm
Contact:

Golly not responding

Post by Entity Valkyrie 2 » December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am

How to I recover patterns if Golly stopped responding?

EDIT: Is there a trick or hack to make it respond again (since it will never respond if I just wait)?
EDIT: Is there a way to copy down a pattern when it is not responding?

EDIT: Please quick reply. (I am quite desperate now.) I have a large unsaved pattern that is 99% complete before Golly just crashed.

EDIT: Can you please update golly so that the "Illegal operation while calculating" never occurs again?
EDIT: How do I make golly autosave?

By the way, I already started all over again. I am using QuickLife this time to avoid the "Illegal operation while calculating" problem, even though QuickLife is slower.
Bx222 IS MY WORST ENEMY.

Please click here for my own pages.

My recent rules:
StateInvestigator 3.0
B3-kq4ej5i6ckn7e/S2-i34q6a7
B3-kq4ej5y6c/S2-i34q5e
Move the Box

User avatar
JP21
Posts: 1870
Joined: October 26th, 2019, 5:39 am
Location: PH

Re: How to make a new topic

Post by JP21 » December 14th, 2019, 11:03 am

Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am
How to I recover patterns if Golly stopped responding?

EDIT: Is there a trick or hack to make it respond again (since it will never respond if I just wait)?
EDIT: Is there a way to copy down a pattern when it is not responding?

EDIT: Please quick reply. (I am quite desperate now.) I have a large unsaved pattern that is 99% complete before Golly just crashed.

EDIT: Can you please update golly so that the "Illegal operation while calculating" never occurs again?
EDIT: How do I make golly autosave?

By the way, I already started all over again. I am using QuickLife this time to avoid the "Illegal operation while calculating" problem, even though QuickLife is slower.
That also happened to me in QuickLife twice. (not so sure)
Why is nobody else answering this?
I don't know a way to recover them.
Just here to ask you how to make a topic.
How to make a new topic???
A 17 year old guy that have useless discoveries in life and other rules.

Code: Select all

x = 13, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
11b2o$11b2o4$8b2o$8b2o2$2o$2o3$3b2o$3b2o2$11b2o$10b2o$12bo$3b2o$3b2o!
My actions weren't smart back then.

User avatar
Moosey
Posts: 4306
Joined: January 27th, 2019, 5:54 pm
Location: here
Contact:

Re: How to make a new topic

Post by Moosey » December 14th, 2019, 12:06 pm

JP21 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 11:03 am
How to make a new topic???
Click the button with the red words on it
Click the button with the red words on it
The blue words are the forum name.png (12.74 KiB) Viewed 7018 times
not active here but active on discord

User avatar
JP21
Posts: 1870
Joined: October 26th, 2019, 5:39 am
Location: PH

Re: How to make a new topic

Post by JP21 » December 14th, 2019, 12:16 pm

Moosey wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 12:06 pm
JP21 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 11:03 am
How to make a new topic???
The blue words are the forum name.png
Soooooo hidden!!!
Not to forget that I said this 2 days after making my account... :(
JP21 wrote:
October 28th, 2019, 1:09 am
since this is for random posts

Code: Select all

x = 46, y = 31, rule = B3/S23
44bo$43b3o$3bo39bobo$bobo$bobo$bo6$43bobo$43b3o$44bo15$obo2bo$2o2b2o$o
2bobo!
and how to make a new topic (i cant find the button)

oh no im just 13 years old why did i even register here???
A 17 year old guy that have useless discoveries in life and other rules.

Code: Select all

x = 13, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
11b2o$11b2o4$8b2o$8b2o2$2o$2o3$3b2o$3b2o2$11b2o$10b2o$12bo$3b2o$3b2o!
My actions weren't smart back then.

User avatar
toroidalet
Posts: 1514
Joined: August 7th, 2016, 1:48 pm
Location: My computer
Contact:

Re: Golly not responding

Post by toroidalet » December 14th, 2019, 12:28 pm

@JP21, please don't post completely unrelated questions outside of "anything goes" sandbox. It adds useless clutter and not much else.

@EV2, the best current solution is to save your patterns frequently. Also, I don't think that switching to QuickLife will really help, since (at least for me) when Golly stops responding, it usually does so out of the blue while I'm doing something else.
Still, I think there should be some sort of "autosave" feature, and I think I requested one at some point (but in confusing language).
Any sufficiently advanced software is indistinguishable from malice.

User avatar
Entity Valkyrie 2
Posts: 1756
Joined: February 26th, 2019, 7:13 pm
Contact:

Re: Golly not responding

Post by Entity Valkyrie 2 » December 14th, 2019, 4:05 pm

toroidalet wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 12:28 pm
@JP21, please don't post completely unrelated questions outside of "anything goes" sandbox. It adds useless clutter and not much else.

@EV2, the best current solution is to save your patterns frequently. Also, I don't think that switching to QuickLife will really help, since (at least for me) when Golly stops responding, it usually does so out of the blue while I'm doing something else.
Still, I think there should be some sort of "autosave" feature, and I think I requested one at some point (but in confusing language).
Please add an option to Quick Save a pattern, instead of having to browse every time when saving.
Bx222 IS MY WORST ENEMY.

Please click here for my own pages.

My recent rules:
StateInvestigator 3.0
B3-kq4ej5i6ckn7e/S2-i34q6a7
B3-kq4ej5y6c/S2-i34q5e
Move the Box

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

Re: Golly not responding

Post by wildmyron » December 16th, 2019, 12:39 am

Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am
How to I recover patterns if Golly stopped responding?
Sorry you couldn't recover your work or get help in time to do so. Hopefully I can provide some useful information for future reference.

In future, please state the version of Golly and the platform you are using (and versions of any other relevant software, such as Python) so that anyone wanting to help can provide more relevant answers without having to ask first.
Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am
EDIT: Is there a trick or hack to make it respond again (since it will never respond if I just wait)?
As far as I know when this happens there is no trick to make Golly respond again if it really is hung. Providing you are using a recent (or the latest) version of Golly, the HashLife based algos have improved response time when they get stuck calculating the next step - all you need to do is press `Esc`. That's about all you can do; and wait.
Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am
EDIT: Is there a way to copy down a pattern when it is not responding?
For future reference, there is possibly one potential avenue to recover a pattern by examining the files in Golly's Temp directory. On Windows this directory can be found by entering %TEMP% into the location bar of Windows Explorer and looking for a directory with name "gol000.tmp", where "000" is a random three digit number. If golly has crashed previously there may be more than one such folder so look for the one most recent date. Make a copy of all the files in this folder and place it in a convenient place. The "*.tmp" files will mostly (all?) be rle or mc format pattern files which are represent the state of the pattern at various stages of editing the patterns in the current layers. File starting with "gol" are copies of patterns from gen 0 (or recently opened from clipboard/file), and files starting "gg_" are copies of patterns at various stages of editing and running. If you sort the files by modified date and open the most recent few files in a text editor then you should be able to get a copy of the pattern from a recent stage of editing. I have no idea how reliable this process will be when Golly has become unresponsive.
Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am
EDIT: Can you please update golly so that the "Illegal operation while calculating" never occurs again?
If there was an easy an obvious change to make to Golly to ensure this wouldn't happen, it would have already been made. There was at least one change to Golly v3.0 which addressed (some of) the causes of this bug. Are you using the latest version of Golly? If not, you should update before making feature requests and reporting bugs. In order for further fixes to be made in Golly which would prevent this bug from occurring, what the Golly Gang (including Andrew) need is a reproducible test case - if you can execute a sequence of steps and hit the bug every time then detailing those exact steps here would be very helpful. This might look something like the following:
  • Open file "pattern.rle" in Golly v3.3 (see attached file)
  • Change algorithm to HashLife
  • Change base step to 2 and set step to 10
  • Press Tab 10 times
  • Select from (0,0) to (99,99)
  • Copy selection
  • Undo back to gen 4096
  • Paste clipboard an (0,-100)
  • Press Tab
    ...
  • Bug happens
Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 5:16 am
EDIT: How do I make golly autosave?
Golly currently does not have an autosave/autorecover feature. As mentioned, you should make a habit of saving your work when spending a lot of time on designing complex patterns. This would be true even if Golly had an autosave feature and did not have any bugs (all software has bugs!) because you can't rule out something else going wrong such as the OS crashing or experiencing a sudden power loss. This is also true for any other software you use, such as word processing, text editing, writing software, etc.
Entity Valkyrie 2 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 4:05 pm
Please add an option to Quick Save a pattern, instead of having to browse every time when saving.
This request, and the request for an Auto-save feature, should probably be made on the most recent Golly thread in General Discussion (Golly 3.3 has been released at time of writing) or perhaps the Golly suggestions thread. Please remember that the Golly Gang are volunteers who put their time into writing Golly because they enjoy it (hopefully) and think it might be useful software to have and to share with others.
JP21 wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 11:03 am

Why is nobody else answering this?
Probably because nobody who happened to be reading the forum at the time felt like they could provide an answer that would be useful to solving the problem.

I hope that this post has provided some useful information, both for this specific unfortunate scenario and in a more general sense.
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
JP21
Posts: 1870
Joined: October 26th, 2019, 5:39 am
Location: PH

Re: Golly not responding

Post by JP21 » December 20th, 2019, 11:15 am

toroidalet wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 12:28 pm
@JP21, please don't post completely unrelated questions outside of "anything goes" sandbox. It adds useless clutter and not much else.

@EV2, the best current solution is to save your patterns frequently. Also, I don't think that switching to QuickLife will really help, since (at least for me) when Golly stops responding, it usually does so out of the blue while I'm doing something else.
Still, I think there should be some sort of "autosave" feature, and I think I requested one at some point (but in confusing language).
I would actually like the autosave feature added already.
A 17 year old guy that have useless discoveries in life and other rules.

Code: Select all

x = 13, y = 20, rule = B3/S23
11b2o$11b2o4$8b2o$8b2o2$2o$2o3$3b2o$3b2o2$11b2o$10b2o$12bo$3b2o$3b2o!
My actions weren't smart back then.

Hunting
Posts: 4395
Joined: September 11th, 2017, 2:54 am

Re: Golly not responding

Post by Hunting » March 29th, 2020, 7:40 am

JP21 wrote:
December 20th, 2019, 11:15 am
toroidalet wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 12:28 pm
@JP21, please don't post completely unrelated questions outside of "anything goes" sandbox. It adds useless clutter and not much else.

@EV2, the best current solution is to save your patterns frequently. Also, I don't think that switching to QuickLife will really help, since (at least for me) when Golly stops responding, it usually does so out of the blue while I'm doing something else.
Still, I think there should be some sort of "autosave" feature, and I think I requested one at some point (but in confusing language).
I would actually like the autosave feature added already.
I agree. Just like Sublime.

User avatar
dvgrn
Moderator
Posts: 10612
Joined: May 17th, 2009, 11:00 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Golly not responding

Post by dvgrn » April 3rd, 2020, 4:18 pm

JP21 wrote:
December 20th, 2019, 11:15 am
toroidalet wrote:
December 14th, 2019, 12:28 pm
@JP21, please don't post completely unrelated questions outside of "anything goes" sandbox. It adds useless clutter and not much else.

@EV2, the best current solution is to save your patterns frequently. Also, I don't think that switching to QuickLife will really help, since (at least for me) when Golly stops responding, it usually does so out of the blue while I'm doing something else.
Still, I think there should be some sort of "autosave" feature, and I think I requested one at some point (but in confusing language).
I would actually like the autosave feature added already.
Strangely enough, Golly has actually had a fairly decent autosave feature for a long time, ever since the unlimited undo feature was implemented. You just have to know where to go to retrieve your most recent undo-able pattern.

Copy the following Lua code to your clipboard, and File > Run Clipboard in Golly:

Code: Select all

local g = golly()
g.note(g.getdir("temp"))
g.setclipstr(g.getdir("temp"))
Now you know where temporary files for the current session of Golly. This will be a random-looking folder name -- on Windows, something like C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp\gol7877.tmp\. The script puts a copy of the current Temp path in your clipboard. Make a shortcut to the next higher folder above the "gol*" folder -- Temp in this case -- and put it in Golly's root directory for future use.

Ordinarily all temporary files are deleted when Golly closes, along with the temporary "gol*" folder containing them. But if Golly crashed, that deletion step doesn't happen! So then you can go and look in that hidden Temp directory, sort to find the most recent temporary "gol" folder, sort to find the most recent .tmp file inside that folder, and try opening it in Golly. Chances are it will be a recent copy of the pattern you were working on when the crash occurred.

If this kind of data loss due to a mysterious Golly crash has ever happened to you, I'd recommend you take a moment to walk through finding this Temp folder now, so that you'll know what to do if something similar happens again.

User avatar
JP21
Posts: 1870
Joined: October 26th, 2019, 5:39 am
Location: PH

Re: Golly not responding

Post by JP21 » April 3rd, 2020, 10:51 pm

Yes Dave? How about the mobile version?

Post Reply