JavaLife help - Game of Life
Selections
Making selection
Keep Ctrl-key down, click left mouse button and drag area you want to select.
Deleting selection
Keep Ctrl-key down and click right mouse button.
Clipboard
JavaLife have its own clipboard which doesn't affect to system clipboard any way (because Java is unable to do that). Before using cut or copy, you
have to have selection made.
Cut [Ctrl]+[X]
Copy selection to clipboard and clear selection area.
Copy [Ctrl]+[C]
Copy selection to clipboard.
Paste [Ctrl]+[V]
Paste selection from clipboard to world, starting from cell which mouse pointer is pointing.
Menu
Click colored buttons, Edit, View, Evolution,
Rules, Mutations, Graphics and IO to
display corresponding submenus.
Menu - Edit
Clear [Shift]+[C]
Remove all living cells from world. Or only from selection if one is made.
Fill [Shift]+[F]
X% random [Shift]+[R]
Fill world or selection with random cells. Percent tells possibility that cell is alive instead of dead (i.e "0% Random" is
same as "Clear" and "100% Random" is same as "Fill")
LMB
Select action for left mouse button.
- Cell = Draw cell when left mouse button is clicked
- Clear = Remove cell when left mouse button is cliked
- Invert = Change cell state (alive<->dead) when left mouse button is clicked
RMB
Same than LMB but action is for right mouse button.
Centralize
Move all living cells to the center of the world.
Menu - View
Zoom in [+] or [Page Up]
Zoom view in. If you use keyboard to zoom in ([+] or [Page Up]) zooming will be targeted to mouse pointer if mouse pointer is above the world view.
Default zoom, when applet starts, is 8x
Zoom out [-] or [Page Down]
Zoom view out. Again zoom is targeted to mouse pointer as in "Zoom in".
Full view [*] or [End]
Show whole world (i.e change zoom to 1x)
Zoom to fit [/] or [Home]
Move view and change zoom to closest possible so that all living cells fit to view.
Scrolling (keyboard only) ([Shift]+) [Numpad]/[Arrows]
Scroll view to desired direction. If you need to do faster scrolling, hold "Shift"-key down during pressing Numpad/Arrow-keys.
Menu - Evolution
This is the menu that is first visible when you start JavaLife-applet.
Start [Space]
Start running generations forward.
1 gen forward [Enter]
Move one generation forward.
X gens forward
Move X generations forward. X can be any positive integer.
Go to gen X
Start running generations forward until generation X is reached. If X is less than current generation, nothing happens except X is changed to number
current of current generation.
Speed
Change speed of evolution.
- Wait 1 sec = 1 second delay after each generation
- Wait 0,1 sec = 0,1 seconds delay after each generation
- Wait 0,01 sec = 0,01 seconds delay after each generation (default)
- Full speed = No delay between generations (may slow down applet controls with some operating systems)
If you still need more speed, you can disable part of drawing-work by skipping frames:
- Draw each 10 = Only draw each tenth generation during evolution
- No drawing = World-view will not be updated at all until evolution is stopped
Stop [Space]
Stop evolution. (This button is visible only when evolution is running.)
Menu - Rules
From this menu you can change Game of Life -rules.
Birth
Number of living neighbours dead cell have to have until it comes alive. (Note! Using "Birth: 0" setting usually slows down speed of evolution.)
Survival
Number of living neighbours living cell have to have before it survive to next generation.
Set do default
Set rules to default (Conway's Life, B3/S23)
Menu - Mutations
Mutations aren't very common part of Game of Life (programs). But if you want some random factors to your world, here you can do it.
X% possibility that living cell dies
Percent of possibility that living cell dies even if it should born/survive according rules.
X% possibility that dead cell comes alive
Percent of possibility that any dead cell in world comes alive even if it should die/stay dead according rules. Changing this
value, you can actually create life out from empty world. (Note! Using this may slow down speed of evolution.)
Set to 0
In normal case mutations doesn't take place, i.e. both values are 0. Clicking this button change both mutation-values to 0.
Menu - Graphics
Grid [G]
Turn grid on/off (default is on). Grid is never visible with zoom less than 4x
World color
Change world background (and grid) color.
Cells color
Change color of living cells.
Menu - IO
Applets are not able to load or save data to harddisks but from this menu you can import and export simple life-files.
Import '.life' [I]
When clicking this button, import-popup will appear. You can copy&paste data of life-files to textarea (using normal operating system clipboard)
and click "Import" to move data to applet. Imported life will be automatically centralized. You can also click "Import to clipboard" to move data to
JavaLife-clipboard and then you can use paste to put content of clipboard to any part of world.
Export '.life' [E]
When clicking this button, export-popup will appear. Textarea cointais life-data of your world or selection and you can
copy&paste it (with system clipboard) to any texteditor and then save it to disk.
Info-bar
Info-bar is at the bottom of applet, showing useful information.
Gen
Current generation. Generation is automatically set to zero when using clear, fill,
random or import. And only if this targetted to whole world.
Pop
Current population, i.e number of living cells.
Max
Rules
Grid
Word "Grid" is visible when grid is turned on.
Zoom
Show current zoom or text "Full view" if zoom is 1x
Coordinates
Mouse x- and y-coordinates in world. Cell 0,0 is located at upper left corner. Coordinates are visible only when mouse is over world view.
Focus
Sometimes keyboard-commands may stop working. This may be because keyboard-focus isn't in JavaLife-applet, so key presses are directed to somewhere
else. Press Focus-button to set focus to applet, after that keyboard-commands should work again.
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