User talk:Muzik

Caterpillar_macrocell_part_1 etc.

May I ask you what were you doing there? Codeholic (talk) 19:41, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

I was using wiki pages to transfer the .mc code for the caterpillar from computer to iPad. None of the conventional methods worked. AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:09, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Have you heard of Dropbox maybe? LifeWiki is not your own file storage. Codeholic (talk) 21:25, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

That wouldn't work. For some reason, on iOS, you can't select very large .rle or .mc files. AwesoMan3000 (talk) 21:44, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Cite web

Howdy -- since you indicated in an edit comment you didn't know how to use {{cite web}}, I thought I'd give you a quick intro. It's actually really easy; instead of putting a bare URL inside <ref> tags, use the following, and fill in the correct parameters:

{{cite web|url=http://example.com|title=Page title|author=Author's name|date=January 1, 1970|accessdate=Today's date}}

There's more parameters, but these are the important ones. Alternatively, you can see how it's being used e.g. here. Apple Bottom (talk) 23:27, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

General rule of thumb

Do not write about your own contributions in the wiki. If they're significant, people will mention it (sooner or later). I'd been waiting for a year (no, actually, I hadn't :)) before Dave created an article about weekender distaff. Be patient. Codeholic (talk) 08:09, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

• By "my contributions", do you mean writing stuff in the edit summary, or noting the process of naming the copperhead? AwesoMan3000 (talk) 08:38, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
  • I haven't understood what you meant by "writing stuff in the edit summary", but edit summary is generally not a problem, as it is meta. I meant process of naming the copperhead in particular, but it also includes (but is not limited to) patterns you found. Codeholic (talk) 10:47, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
    • Don't remember writing about any of my discoveries (except possibly Honey factory, which was probably known around the time of the pentadecathlon anyway), so unless you were talking about the c/10 blinker fuse I don't remember writing anything about patterns I found? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 11:23, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
      • I mentioned writing articles about one's own patterns just preventively. You know, 50% of new LifeWiki contributors start with creating articles about still lifes, methuselahs or whatever patterns they "discovered". It's good that you're not susceptible to this flaw. Codeholic (talk) 22:17, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
    • P.S. When I tried to post this, it said my edit had new external links and gave me the verification thing. I don't see any external links here.
      • Hmm, me neither. Codeholic (talk) 22:17, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
        • Unless it was referring to the link in the section before this, which still makes next to no sense since I was still only editing this section when the message appeared. AwesoMan3000 (talk) 22:18, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

LifeWiki:Tiki bar

Howdy! The LifeWiki's lacked a central discussion page so far, so I've gone ahead and created the LifeWiki:Tiki bar as a friendly place where the community can get together to discuss things in a relaxed atmosphere. You're cordially invited to join in!

The first discussion I started is on how to best integrate the LifeViewer applet (LV:Viewer) that is now available on the LifeWiki thanks to User:Nathaniel's efforts.

See you at the bar! Apple Bottom (talk) 11:21, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

RLE snippets

I appreciate that you're trying to help by adding RLE snippets, but could you exercise a bit more diligence? In particular:

1. The title of the page containing the snippet needs to match the pname= parameter from the pattern's infobox. For example, the RLE snippet for the LWSS lives at RLE:lwss, not RLE:lightweight spaceship, which does precisely nothing.
   1. (Just for the future and because I know it'll eventually come up, capitalization matters, too, so it really has to be RLE:lwss and not e.g. RLE:Lwss.)
2. Once a pattern has an RLE snippet, it usually also needs a viewerconfig= parameter in its infobox so the RLE will be played correctly. This is especially important for spaceships, which will otherwise quickly move off-screen.
3. The RLE code needs to be correct. The Coe ship's, for instance, wasn't.

Thanks! Apple Bottom (talk) 09:35, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

thanks. Being as stupid as I am I was kind of wondering what names I should have used.

Also, I'm still having a lot of trouble figuring out the config... - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 09:37, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

The configuration is a bit... obaque, I'll say, yes. The most important parameters you need to know (and likely want to specify) are GPS (generations per second) for both oscillators and spaceships; and TRACK (track a pattern) for spaceships. The latter takes three parameters: the number of generations to track, and the total X and Y offsets by which the pattern moves.

As for other parameters, I've found it's generally best to copy the viewerconfig= parameter from another page and tweak them until the embedded viewer looks good.

BTW, for pages that already have downloadable RLE files it's probably best to make the on-wiki RLE snippet match what's in those files. At the very least it'll make it easier to check that the on-wiki RLE is indeed correct - otherwise it may well be, but it won't be obvious. ;) Apple Bottom (talk) 09:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Been doing the copying for the Cordership pages. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 09:57, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Cool. BTW, maybe it would be best if you tried to get a page working right before starting work on the next -- one step at a time! There's no rush, after all, and "good" beats "fast".

Oh, and a few more notes. First, RLE snippets can contain newlines, you don't need to edit those out. ;) And second, the embedded viewer has so far only been added for oscillators and spaceships, not e.g. guns, so there's no use (yet) in adding snippets for those. Apple Bottom (talk) 10:06, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Infobox parameters

Howdy! I thought I'd give you a quick heads-up re: infobox parameters. :) Parameters such as rle= or animated= should only be specified if an RLE file, animated image etc. actually exists. If they are specified, it doesn't matter what their value is -- even "false" is interpreted as "this exists", so e.g. rle=false will not do what one would think.

All the best! Apple Bottom (talk) 10:59, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

I tried taking away the RLE line, but then the viewer would fail to appear.

Also, would rle=0 also be seen as yes? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 11:01, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Hmm, without having taken another look at the pattern infobox template I'm 99.44% sure you need to pass nofile=1 (or =anything, really) if there's no downloadable files, or the infobox will not display either an image or the viewer. Don't ask me why it's done this way; I suspect it's a relic from the days where those editing on here were largely just those who also had the ability to upload RLE/... files.

And I'm fairly sure it would be seen as that, yes.

P.S. -- thanks for contributing and writing articles on new rules and things, BTW. ;) Apple Bottom (talk) 11:30, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Infoboxes for non-Life patterns

Also, when you're putting articles on patterns in non-standard rules on subpages of your user page, I'm not sure it's a good idea to use the usual templates such as Template:Spaceship. The reason is that these populate categories such as Category:Spaceships with period 4 etc., and the consensus at the LifeWiki:Tiki bar was that these should not contain patterns that don't actually work in Conway Life. You may want to rekindle that debate, or start a new one. Apple Bottom (talk) 11:54, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Was worried about that. Isn't there a way to cancel out the automatic addition of categories?

or maybe someone could make a copy of the infobox that does not automatically add any categories? - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 12:43, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

Those could both be made to work, yes. I'm not a big fan of changing the standard templates just so they can support patterns that aren't supposed to go into the main namespace in the first place, but you could certainly copy and modify them, ideally into your own userspace, say User:AwesoMan3000/Spaceship. Template transclusion works just the same no matter whether the transcluded page is in the Template: namespace or not, though if it isn't you have to explicitely specify the namespace. I've set up an example template for spaceships for you. Apple Bottom (talk) 12:55, 24 June 2016 (UTC)

MWSS LifeViewer

The viewer's working fine; there must be a problem on your side. Have you tried clearing your browser cache to make sure you have the latest LifeViewer Javascript?

If the problem persists, please raise the issue at the Tiki bar so it can be fixed rather than covered up. Correct viewerconfig is important. Thanks. Apple Bottom (talk) 15:18, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Images

Howdy, a few tips re: images:

1. Use black-on-white, not Golly's default.
2. Use PNG, not JPEG, for still images.
3. Include a description of some sort when uploading images.
4. Ideally, upload images in the size that they're supposed to be used in; don't expect that MediaWiki's image scaling will produce good results.

Apple Bottom (talk) 10:19, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

You can't upload images as png from an iPad after you crop them. - AwesoMan3000 (talk) 12:49, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Viewerconfig

When you add RLE snippets for oscillators etc., please add a viewerconfig line to the pattern's infobox as well. Apple Bottom (talk) 21:01, 1 July 2016 (UTC)