Problem with Golly key mappings on Mac

For scripts to aid with computation or simulation in cellular automata.
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MathAndCode
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Problem with Golly key mappings on Mac

Post by MathAndCode » December 31st, 2020, 3:03 pm

dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 2:47 pm
Right, so what do you think of switching to LifeSuper so that inputs can be marked with a different state than outputs? Really I'd prefer sticking with LifeHistory and leaving both inputs and outputs as state 4, though, since in practice I pretty much never want either of them on.

When I want to turn a marked-OFF Herschel on, I select it and use Alt+K to switch the state from 4 to 3.
For some reason, that doesn't work for me. Instead, I get this:
Attemtping to change states in Golly.png
Attemtping to change states in Golly.png (106.91 KiB) Viewed 2344 times
Also, I would have to do it individually for each conduit, while the other way around could be done all at once.
By the way, do you know why the status bar takes up seven lines? It got taller for me a few days to a week ago, and I don't know why or how to change it back.
dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 2:47 pm
Everything is opaque unless you have icons turned on. It's View > Show Cell Icons, also controlled by a mysterious pair of buttons in the Edit bar.
Yes, that worked. Thank you.
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by dvgrn » December 31st, 2020, 3:47 pm

MathAndCode wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 3:03 pm
dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 2:47 pm
Right, so what do you think of switching to LifeSuper so that inputs can be marked with a different state than outputs? Really I'd prefer sticking with LifeHistory and leaving both inputs and outputs as state 4, though, since in practice I pretty much never want either of them on.

When I want to turn a marked-OFF Herschel on, I select it and use Alt+K to switch the state from 4 to 3.
For some reason, that doesn't work for me...
Have you moved scripts around in your Scripts folder, or something like that? As far as I know, all editions of Golly 4.0 should have Scripts/Lua/toChangeState.lua, and that's what the error message says Golly is looking for. It was actually in a few versions before that, if I remember right. You can get a copy from here if necessary.
MathAndCode wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 3:03 pm
Also, I would have to do it individually for each conduit, while the other way around could be done all at once -- as long as there aren't any weird overlapping part-state-1 part-state-3 pre-Herschels for the dependent conduits.
Yup, I guess as long as inputs are (the only) State 3, and outputs are (the only) State 4, then a couple of quick state changes should get the ECC to the way I or anyone else might want it.

Also the current ECC has a few oddball composite conduits, like the HSE16T36, in there for historical reasons -- when it was invented, there were less than twenty known Herschel-to-glider converters, so it was part of the "original set". Or rather the not-quite-original set. The first collection by Stephen Silver didn't include that one.

We should probably get rid of the yellow coloring for those composite conduits, and figure out some other way of marking or labeling things like the Silver reflector and the P->L that are considered important enough to be included in the ECC even though they're composite.
MathAndCode wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 3:03 pm
By the way, do you know why the status bar takes up seven lines? It got taller for me a few days to a week ago, and I don't know why or how to change it back.
Try turning off View > Show Exact Numbers. You might have hit Ctrl+E accidentally at some point.

MathAndCode
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by MathAndCode » December 31st, 2020, 3:54 pm

dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 3:47 pm
Have you moved scripts around in your Scripts folder, or something like that? As far as I know, all editions of Golly 4.0 should have Scripts/Lua/toChangeState.lua, and that's what the error message says Golly is looking for. It was actually in a few versions before that, if I remember right. You can get a copy from here if necessary.
I tried redownloading Golly before posting, so I don't think that that's it. I'll try downloading the script, though.
dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 3:47 pm
Try turning off View > Show Exact Numbers. You might have hit Ctrl+E accidentally at some point.
Yes, that worked. I only searched help for anything containing the word status when I tried to figure out how to change it back. Thank you.



Edit: That's weird; it looks like there's already a file with the same name in my Scripts/Lua folder, there don't seem to be any spelling errors, and the filepath seems correct.
Scripts Lua folder.png
Scripts Lua folder.png (106.94 KiB) Viewed 2336 times


Another edit: I just replaced the file, and alt+K in Golly still doesn't work.
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by dvgrn » December 31st, 2020, 4:08 pm

MathAndCode wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 3:54 pm
Another edit: I just replaced the file, and alt+K in Golly still doesn't work.
I definitely don't understand that. As an experiment, try going to Preferences > Keyboard, press Alt + K (or I guess it's Option + K on a Mac) and see what that hotkey is mapped to. Maybe try running toChangeState.lua separately via File > Run Script, or try mapping a different hotkey to that script.

My guess would be that Alt+G (toSuper.lua), Alt+H (toHistory.lua) and Alt+J (toStandard.lua) aren't mapped correctly for you either, and I'd like to know why. Maybe something about what the Mac OS considers to be Golly's root folder? Scripts/Lua/toChangeState.lua is a relative path, so I suspect you'll be able to get it working by using Preferences > Keyboard to map those keys to a full-not-relative path on your system.

MathAndCode
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by MathAndCode » December 31st, 2020, 4:10 pm

dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 4:08 pm
I definitely don't understand that. As an experiment, try going to Preferences > Keyboard, press Alt + K (or I guess it's Option + K on a Mac) and see what that hotkey is mapped to. Maybe try running toChangeState.lua separately via File > Run Script, or try mapping a different hotkey to that script.
It's mapped to the right file, but the action is Open Chosen File. Could that be the problem?
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by dvgrn » December 31st, 2020, 4:23 pm

MathAndCode wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 4:10 pm
It's mapped to the right file, but the action is Open Chosen File. Could that be the problem?
No, that's what you should see. But notice the path just starts with the "Scripts" folder, not with the Golly folder, or (wherever you've put your Golly folder on your system). That _should_ work, but apparently it _isn't_ working.

Try re-mapping each key to the correct file, by browsing to the file on your system -- and then see if the reported path changes to something different (and see if that works).

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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by MathAndCode » December 31st, 2020, 4:25 pm

dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 4:23 pm
No, that's what you should see. But notice the path just starts with the "Scripts" folder, not with the Golly folder, or (wherever you've put your Golly folder on your system). That _should_ work, but apparently it _isn't_ working.

Try re-mapping each key to the correct file, by browsing to the file on your system -- and then see if the reported path changes to something different (and see if that works).
Yes, it works now. Thank you.
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by dvgrn » December 31st, 2020, 4:34 pm

MathAndCode wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 4:25 pm
Yes, it works now. Thank you.
I'd like to know whether this is a problem specific to your system, or if it will affect other MacGolly users. Can you also try hitting Shift+S after making a selection, and see if shift.lua runs correctly? Or do you get a similar error there?

MathAndCode
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Re: H-to-G and H-to-Gn converter collection

Post by MathAndCode » December 31st, 2020, 4:38 pm

dvgrn wrote:
December 31st, 2020, 4:34 pm
I'd like to know whether this is a problem specific to your system, or if it will affect other MacGolly users. Can you also try hitting Shift+S after making a selection, and see if shift.lua runs correctly? Or do you get a similar error there?
I get a similar error.
Also, in case it's helpful, after redownloading Golly, I kept the application in the golly-4.0.1-mac folder (and that in my Downloads folder) in order to ensure that moving it out was not the cause of the problem.
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