Miscellaneous LifeWiki Discussion

[Sokwe]

This thread is for miscellaneous discussion about LifeWiki that does not warrant its own thread and does not seem to fit into an existing thread.

[Sokwe]

I removed the LifeWiki <code> tag style from MediaWiki:Common.css so that they would revert to the standard MediaWiki style. In particular, this makes text inside <code> tags inline, rather than a separate block. I did this so that I could use <code> tags in the LLSSS tutorial I'm writing. I'm not sure if <code> tags were being used anywhere else on the wiki, so let me know if this broke something somewhere.

[Chris857]

I only see <code> tags used in LV:Viewer and LifeWiki:Tiki_bar#Regarding_programming_language_syntax_colouring_support_in_code_blocks (and the latter is inside of <nowiki> anyway), and they both look fine.

[FlutterWithKSparkler]

I removed the LifeWiki <code> tag style from MediaWiki:Common.css so that they would revert to the standard MediaWiki style. In particular, this makes text inside <code> tags inline, rather than a separate block. I did this so that I could use <code> tags in the LLSSS tutorial I'm writing. I'm not sure if <code> tags were being used anywhere else on the wiki, so let me know if this broke something somewhere.

Some pages linked from file formats use the <code> tag. According to Help:Quick editing guide code blocks may also use <pre> as well.

[confocaloid]

There are some "maintenance tasks", which are relatively minor (so can be combined with other more significant edits, rather than being the sole reason for making an edit) and were discussed earlier several times in different places without meeting counterarguments, as far as I know.

• When the displayed pagename needs to begin with a lowercase letter (for any reason), please add the following at the end of the wikitext (or near the end):

  Code: Select all

  {{dtlc1}}

  This will use the template Template:dtlc1. The only effect of this should be that the first letter of the displayed title will be lowercased.
  
  For example, when the pagename begins with abbreviated "pN ...", where N is the period of an object, it should be lowercased by convention.
• The infobox parameter "rulespecial" is no longer used, and is deprecated. If you notice that it's present in the wikitext of a page you're editing, please remove the line "rulespecial".
• In pages where galleries of embedded viewers are formatted using tables, the layout is fixed and fails to adapt to the reader's screen width.
  Please format any new galleries using the three templates {{gallery top}}, {{gallery item}}, {{gallery bottom}} as explained in the page Template:Gallery item.
  Please feel free to convert old-style table-based viewer galleries into template-based viewer galleries.

For example, all of the above issues can be seen in the current revision of the page p5 diamond.

[WhiteHawk]

Is there any way to allow the Category:Oscillators with period 34 page to link to Honey Ring page to acknowledge the p34 on that page, similar to Caterer on figure eight?

I also think it would be helpful to note on each "Category:Oscillators with period N" page that the below lists do not include all oscillators of those periods.

[confocaloid]

Is there any way to allow the Category:Oscillators with period 34 page to link to Honey Ring page to acknowledge the p34 on that page, similar to Caterer on figure eight?

I also think it would be helpful to note on each "Category:Oscillators with period N" page that the below lists do not include all oscillators of those periods.

Firstly, the category pages already mention incompleteness, note the word 'notable' in the category descriptions:

>> "This category contains all notable period-<N> oscillators."

Regarding the p34 you mention: if that oscillator is deemed notable enough to be listed, the "default solution" is to create a redirect page (redirecting from the name of that p34 oscillator to the page Honey ring), and to put the redirect page in the category.

[WhiteHawk]

HoneyLife

In the Soup Search section of the HoneyLife page, the page previously listed two sentences cataloging dates when Catagolue haul milestones were reached, one where dates referenced surpassing each milestone and one stating when milestones were reached. Would it be better to combine both sentences and conform language or separate them?

Additionally, would it be better to move the 1 trillion milestone sentence to after the previous haul milestone to after the preceding milestones?

[confocaloid]

HoneyLife

In the Soup Search section of the HoneyLife page, the page previously listed two sentences cataloging dates when Catagolue haul milestones were reached, one where dates referenced surpassing each milestone and one stating when milestones were reached. Would it be better to combine both sentences and conform language or separate them?

Additionally, would it be better to move the 1 trillion milestone sentence to after the previous haul milestone to after the preceding milestones?

They were separated intentionally, and I think should be kept in separate sentences as before (or even in separate paragraphs).

For the earlier dates (before 2023 in that case), as far as I know there is no sufficient historical information preserved to be able to determine when exactly such-and-such milestone was reached. Therefore the wording "over ... billion objects by ..."

For the latter dates, it is known when the milestone was reached. Hence the wording "... reached a total of ... billion objects on ..."

That's two different kinds of historical information, and should be distinguished.

Likewise, the "one trillion objects" milestone should be mentioned separately, because of the interesting consequences of reaching it (as mentioned in the article).

See the revision before the linked changes: https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=157317

On March 12, 2024, the b38s238/C1 census on Catagolue reached a total of one trillion objects, making HoneyLife one of several Life-like rules with hauls subject to statistical verification and peer review before being committed.

The b38s238/C1 census on Catagolue accumulated over 131 billion objects by June 2017,[c 1] over 171 billion objects by October 2017,[c 2] over 190 billion objects by October 2021,[c 3] over 255 billion objects by March 2023.[c 4] The C1 census reached a total of 300 billion objects on March 16, 2023,[c 5] and a total of 500 billion objects on April 30, 2023.

[WhiteHawk]

While trying to update p30 r-pentomino hasslers with one found by Period1GliderGun, I keep getting errors about illegal characters. However, there don't seem to be any such characters as far as I can tell. Please advise.

EDIT by dvgrn: hotdogPi and confocaloid have the right answer below. I'll just put this in to make this question more findable if people do a search on the error text.

The mysterious "Invalid pattern! Illegal character in pattern: " message, in an embedded LifeViewer in a LifeWiki article, is currently the normal response when there's no RLE:{pname} article in the RLE namespace.

[hotdogPi]

It seems like you didn't create the RLEspace page.

[confocaloid]

While trying to update p30 r-pentomino hasslers with one found by Period1GliderGun, I keep getting errors about illegal characters. However, there don't seem to be any such characters as far as I can tell. Please advise.

In this edit, the embedded viewer lists "pname = p30rpentominohassler3" but there is no RLE:p30rpentominohassler3.
edit: "pname" should give the pagename of an existing page in the RLE namespace, giving the RLE of the pattern to be displayed. In this case the page is not found where the system expects it, so there is an error.

Previous unresolved issues:

[...] Would it be better to combine both sentences and conform language or separate them? [...]

[...] They were separated intentionally, and I think should be kept in separate sentences as before (or even in separate paragraphs). [...]
[...]
See the revision before the linked changes: https://conwaylife.com/w/index.php?titl ... did=157317
[...]

[WhiteHawk]

In this edit, the embedded viewer lists "pname = p30rpentominohassler3" but there is no RLE:p30rpentominohassler3.

What goes in pname, then?

[dvgrn]

In this edit, the embedded viewer lists "pname = p30rpentominohassler3" but there is no RLE:p30rpentominohassler3.

What goes in pname, then?

What you have for the pname line is absolutely fine. You just have to actually define what "p30rpentominohassler3" means -- which you do by putting some RLE into RLE:p30rpentominohassler3.

[WhiteHawk]

On Eater 1 page, the page states "it (Eater 1) appears as a stabilizer at the corner of dozens of oscillators" and lists some examples.

I don't think the word "dozens" fits here, as Eater 1 is present in hundreds, if not thousands (and, arguably, infinite due to adjustable oscillators and herschel conduits) of oscillators, and appears in some functionality in the majority of all of them. However, I don't know what word would be best to replace "dozens" with - "hundreds", "thousands", "infinitely many", "many", and "most" all are possible replacements.

[dvgrn]

I don't think the word "dozens" fits here, as Eater 1 is present in hundreds, if not thousands (and, arguably, infinite due to adjustable oscillators and herschel conduits) of oscillators...

Hmm. "Dozens" seems about right to me, because it's pretty easy to make a list of at least a few dozen named oscillators that have eaters at their corners -- just a quick inspection of recent oscillator collections will be enough to fill out the list.

If you changed "dozens" to "hundreds", then you'd kind of need a reference link to justify the claim somehow -- which 200+ oscillators would you be referring to, exactly?

If a statement about "hundreds of oscillators" is true, then the current statement about "dozens of oscillators" is also perfectly true. It seems like this might be a case where "leave well enough alone" is pretty good advice.

[WhiteHawk]

Maximum volatility gun

"The other two examples are Gosper glider gun supported by ouroborous bees and period-86 glider guns and a gliderless MWSS gun using the H-to-MWSS supported by a pair of strictly volatile p86s."

Is there a way to change the language here to make it clear that the p86 glider guns and the MWSS guns are parts 2A and 2B of the same set of maximum volatility guns, and not separate ideas? I currently feel like it seems that the two are effectively expressed here as two entirely different sorts of structures (which I think seemingly contradicts the phrase "The other TWO examples"), especially as the period is mentioned twice in the sentence (may be partially my fault, but previous edits didn't acknowledge the existence of pure p86 glider guns). Thanks.

[dvgrn]

Is there a way to change the language here to make it clear that the p86 glider guns and the MWSS guns are parts 2A and 2B of the same set of maximum volatility guns, and not separate ideas?

I've made a trial edit that attempts to clear up this point.

I also added the following sentence, to make it clearer that there are other sort-of-known periods for strict volatility-1 guns:

It's possible to build a strict volatility-1 gun for any sufficiently large period, by basing it on the various known high-period strictly volatile oscillators. See the [[Volatility]] article for details on those oscillator constructions.
If any of that doesn't seem right for some reason, please let me know.

[confocaloid]

"See also" sections don't need to include links that are already present in the main text of the article. (In this case, "tarantula" is already linked from the lead of the article.)

A link in the main text comes with context and (hopefully) a human-readable explanation of how the topic of the linked page is related to the topic of the linking page. "See also" links don't provide that, and just serve as a general list of "related" links; such lists can be useful if they are short enough, but linking from the main text is usually better and eliminates the need to have a "see also" link.

[WhiteHawk]

"See also" sections don't need to include links that are already present in the main text of the article. (In this case, "tarantula" is already linked from the lead of the article.)

My bad. I didn't see that in the main body and assumed it had been erroneously left out.

Thanks for the tip otherwise.

[AlbertArmStain]

What? Why is this happening all of a sudden, it worked perfectly fine on my phone yesterday.

[confocaloid]

What? Why is this happening all of a sudden, it worked perfectly fine on my phone yesterday.

Related discussion: viewtopic.php?p=202194#p202194

[Timelord Missionary]

I saw this in the Executing old guns by variable speed firing squad thread. Why isn't this honey farm hassler in the p30 honey farm hasslers? Where has it been all my life?

Code: Select all

x = 15, y = 28, rule = B3/S23
2o4b2o$obo2bobo$2bo2bo$b2o2b2o$3o2b3o3bo$2bo2bo5b3o$9b2o3bo$8bo2b3o$9b
obo$8b2o$8bo2bo2bo$2bo6bob4o$2b3o4bo$bo9b2o$2b2o5bo2bo$2bo6b3o2$9b3o$
9bo2bo$11b2o$9bo$9bob4o$8bo2bo2bo$8b2o$9bobo$8bo2b3o$8b2o4bo$13b2o!

[confocaloid]

I saw this in the Executing old guns by variable speed firing squad thread. Why isn't this honey farm hassler in the p30 honey farm hasslers? Where has it been all my life?

Code: Select all

x = 15, y = 28, rule = B3/S23
2o4b2o$obo2bobo$2bo2bo$b2o2b2o$3o2b3o3bo$2bo2bo5b3o$9b2o3bo$8bo2b3o$9b
obo$8b2o$8bo2bo2bo$2bo6bob4o$2b3o4bo$bo9b2o$2b2o5bo2bo$2bo6b3o2$9b3o$
9bo2bo$11b2o$9bo$9bob4o$8bo2bo2bo$8b2o$9bobo$8bo2b3o$8b2o4bo$13b2o!

Probable source: the p30 oscillator by Carson Cheng viewtopic.php?p=152745#p152745
reduced by JP21 viewtopic.php?p=152754#p152754

[Timelord Missionary]

Probable source: the p30 oscillator by Carson Cheng viewtopic.php?p=152745#p152745
reduced by JP21 viewtopic.php?p=152754#p152754

Ah yes, the start of the modern oscillator age (I just made that term up).
[chefsKiss certaintyThatThisIsAnActualThing="False"] [/chefsKiss]

That was a fun time to be around the forums. I hope this post doesn't get deleted, for it was fun to make!