<html> <title>Read Me for Golly</title> <body bgcolor="#FFFFCE"> <center><table border=0 width=600><tr><td> <p> Welcome to Golly, a sophisticated tool for exploring <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conways_Game_of_Life">Conway's Game of Life</a> and many other types of cellular automata. <p> Key features: <ul> <li> Free, open source and cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux). <li> Supports both bounded and unbounded universes. <li> Supports various topologies (plane, torus, Klein bottle, etc.). <li> Supports multi-state universes (cells can have up to 256 states). <li> Includes QuickLife, a fast, memory-efficient algorithm. <li> Use the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashlife">HashLife</a> algorithm to see large patterns evolve at huge time scales. <li> Supports many different rules, including Wolfram's 1D rules, WireWorld, Generations, Larger than Life, and John von Neumann's 29-state CA. <li> Use the RuleLoader algorithm to load your own rules. <li> Responsive even while generating or garbage collecting. <li> Reads RLE, macrocell, Life 1.05/1.06, dblife, and MCell files. <li> Can also read common graphic formats: BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF. <li> Can extract patterns, scripts and rules from zip files. <li> Download files from online archives. <li> Includes a state-of-the-art pattern collection. <li> Fast loading of large patterns. <li> Paste in patterns from the clipboard. <li> Unlimited undo/redo. <li> Unbounded zooming out for astronomical patterns. <li> Auto fit option keeps a generating pattern within view. <li> Full screen option (no menu/status/tool/scroll bars). <li> Supports multiple layers, including cloned layers. <li> HTML-based help with an integrated Life Lexicon. <li> Scriptable via Lua or Python. <li> User-configurable keyboard shortcuts. </ul> <p> The Golly application can be installed anywhere you like, but make sure you move the whole folder because the various subfolders must be kept with the application. <p> We also provide bgolly, a GUI-less version of Golly that can be run from the command line. <p> The latest information is available at the Golly web site: <dd> <a href="http://golly.sourceforge.net/">http://golly.sourceforge.net/</a> </dd> <p> Now go forth and generate! <p> Andrew Trevorrow (<a href="mailto:andrew@trevorrow.com">andrew@trevorrow.com</a>)<br> Tom Rokicki (<a href="mailto:rokicki@gmail.com">rokicki@gmail.com</a>)<br> (on behalf of The Golly Gang) </td></tr></table></center> </body> </html>