Search scripts for Mac

[Awesomeness]

I want to search for patterns with search programs like gfind and Hersrch. But I have a Mac.

LifeLab is nearly useless for searches due to loads of limitations. I could run a GUI-based version of windows search programs with CrossOver, though... I know lifesrc has a GUI version, so I can use that, but what about gfind and Hersrch? I want to find Herschel conduits.

PS: I bet the life community as a whole would find a LOT more patterns from searches if it were easy for the common Windows user to run searches.

[calcyman]

I want to find Herschel conduits.

That is to say, elementary Herschel conduits? Hersrch can only chain existing conduits together to satisfy given constraints, and not create them from scratch. If you want to find new Herschel conduits, then ptbsearch is probably the best program to use.

PS: I bet the life community as a whole would find a LOT more patterns from searches if it were easy for the common Windows user to run searches.

It is easy enough -- just create a batch file, then run it. It's not the difficulty of setting up a search that has prevented a micro-reflector showing up; it is the amount of time it takes to probe a large multi-catalyst ptbsearch.

If you only use opaque catalysts, however, the search runs much faster. An opaque 5*{block,eater,tub} is not so demanding -- Paul Callahan did that search back in the mid-90s. With today's processing power, we could probably push it to 6 catalysts in a reasonable amount of time.

[Paul Tooke]

Awesomeness wrote:

I want to search for patterns with search programs like gfind and Hersrch. But I have a Mac.

What is the problem with running gfind? David Eppstein wrote and ran this on a Mac back in the days when it had 'no real cmd line' to quote from the program source. There should be no problem with compiling or running it on any of todays computers.

and:

what about gfind and Hersrch? I want to find Herschel conduits.

You do know what gfind does, don't you? Just checking.

BTW, if you are going to use Hersrch, you might want to read the excellent tutorial written by Dave Greene elsewhere in this forum:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=132

and:

PS: I bet the life community as a whole would find a LOT more patterns from searches if it were easy for the common Windows user to run searches.

But you said that you had a Mac!
Presumably your issue, which isn't explicitly stated, is that there aren't GUI versions of these programs. These programs were written by, and have been run by, some fairly bright people and I think that if there was a need for a GUI interface someone would have written one by now. This happened with lifesrc because entering initial starting patterns into the command line version was a tedious and time consuming process (I know, I've been there). The GUI not only makes this process much easier, but it also makes the periodically displayed search status look nicer. Neither gfind or Hersrch suffer from this, just enter the command line parameters, hit return and come back in several minutes/days/months to view the results.

[Awesomeness]

Yes, I know what gfind does. I didn't know what Hersrch did though.

The problem is, I don't know how to compile c source, and some of the parameters you give it confuse me...

[Paul Tooke]

Awesomeness wrote:

The problem is, I don't know how to compile c source, and some of the parameters you give it confuse me...

Well I can't really help much with the compiling issue because I don't use a Mac and therefore don't know what options are available to you. I can help with gfind parameters though, if you let me know which ones are confusing you, and the posting by Dave Greene that I linked to above is really good at explaining Hersrch parameters.

[ebcube]

If you have found a Windows binary, have you tried running it with WineBottler? I use it to try new rules on MCell.

[Moosey]

Are there any catalyst-searching programs for a mac?

[dvgrn]

Are there any catalyst-searching programs for a mac?

Yes -- ptbsearch, catalyst/catgl, CatForce, and Bellman can all technically be compiled on a Mac.

It would be really nice if Golly came with all of these utilities built in, since Golly is cross-platform anyway. But that's a fairly large maintenance headache that no one seems to be in too much of a hurry to take on.

[Moosey]

[quote= "dvgrn"]Yes-- ptbsearch, catalyst/catgl, CatForce, and Bellman can all technically be compiled on a Mac.[/quote]
Okay, does this require c? If so, see my (Gfind) issue here

[PaulRios]

just create a batch file, then run it. It's not the difficulty of setting up a search that has prevented a micro-reflector showing up

[dvgrn]

just create a batch file, then run it.

@Moosey, the above advice doesn't seem specific enough to be very helpful to a beginner. If you don't know what a batch file is, it's very hard to create one. Looking at current tutorials, I can see some mentions of batch files but no examples that would tell anyone how to use one. The 'catalyst' and 'catgl' programs make a lot of use of batch files, and some examples are included in the respective ZIP files. I'll try to remember to add a complete working example of a batch-file-based search to the Catalyst (search program) article. If it doesn't show up, feel free to remind me.

However, reading through the thread you linked to, it looks like you were successful in compiling gfind. The more times you attempt to compile C programs, the more experience you'll get in solving the standard small problems that often come up.

Unless you keep trying until you can solve those kinds of problems, maybe with the same kind of help that you got in the gfind thread, you probably won't be able to run ptbsearch/catalyst/catgl/CatForce/Bellman searches.