Golly 1.3 for iPad

[Andrew]

Golly 1.3 for iPad is now available from the App Store. Note that your iPad must be running iOS 13.0 or later. My old iPad can't even use that iOS so I haven't been able to test Golly 1.3 on an actual iPad, but it works ok in my Mac's Simulator so hopefully it will be ok on your iPad!

Not a lot of changes in this version. Mainly just a rebuild so it supports the new Super algorithm and the new LtL support for HROT rules and the new neighborhoods (thanks to Chris Rowett).

[muzik]

Editing .rule files doesn't seem to work? All I get is a white screen.

[Andrew]

Editing .rule files doesn't seem to work? All I get is a white screen.

What model iPad are you using? Editing works fine in the two simulators I've tested (an iPad Air 4th gen, and an iPad Pro 11in 2nd gen) but I can't test Golly on my old iPad thanks to Apple's unwillingness to support backward compatibility. If and when I get my hands on a newer model iPad I'll take another look, but unlikely to happen any time soon.

[muzik]

Editing .rule files doesn't seem to work? All I get is a white screen.

What model iPad are you using? Editing works fine in the two simulators I've tested (an iPad Air 4th gen, and an iPad Pro 11in 2nd gen) but I can't test Golly on my old iPad thanks to Apple's unwillingness to support backward compatibility. If and when I get my hands on a newer model iPad I'll take another look, but unlikely to happen any time soon.

iPad Air 2 running iPadOS 14.4.2, from what I'm aware.

I've also tested this with newly pasted rules just to confirm that I wasn't actually dealing with a blank rule file and can confirm that they don't show up either.

[muzik]

A couple other things I'd like to mention:
- The nothing loading issue for rules also appears to happen for pattern files.
- Could the text box used for defining the rule be changed to another type of text box which autocorrect cannot interact with? On countless occasions I've had transitions and rule names changed by it because I'm apparently illiterate.
- In an older version of Golly saved patterns were alphabetically sorted. This is no longer the case and makes looking for patterns very difficult.

[muzik]

Setting weighted neighbourhoods with a sufficiently excessive range will guarantee a crash:



On the "nothing loading" issue: this seems to arise for basically anything that brings up editable text, be it ruletables, pattern files or the info button.

Another observation I've made that is probably a bug is that exiting out of the app via the home button and reentering makes text larger in menus like the one depicted above for algorithm info. This persists until the menu is closed, and reopening it will reset the text size.

Before:


After:


And a final bug: entering full screen mode and then exiting it will put a white line above the bar at the bottom, which persists until the app is reset. Further experimentation reveals that there's actually a white line below the top menu I didn't take notice of that is there from the start but is absent when this bug is activated, so perhaps both of these lines are a bug and should be removed.

Before:


After:

[Entity Valkyrie 2]

Is it possible to add StateInvestigator and Symbiosis (or SymbiosisEV2)?

[muzik]

Is it possible to add StateInvestigator and Symbiosis (or SymbiosisEV2)?

For the former: wouldn't it be better to collectively work on a standard [R]Extended specification for the Super algorithm?

[iNoMed]

When running on the first developer beta of iPadOS 15, Golly has an annoying tendency to completely restart if another app is opened (i.e. Safari) while Golly is currently open (usually resulting in loss of unsaved data). This anomaly does not occur nearly as often on iPadOS 14 (instead behaving similarly to other apps on both iPadOS 14 and iPadOS 15), and becomes especially tedious when attempting to run rlifesrc with Golly active.

The only real workaround to this is to use Split View to run Safari and Golly at the same time (thereby keeping Golly active without interruptions), but as soon as I close Golly from here, the problems return and the unsaved content is gone once again...

Edit: I have since discovered that having the "Open pattern" menu open when launching another app will somehow prevent the app from restarting (the "This is Golly 1.2 for iOS." text does not appear, and any unsaved patterns remain accessible), which leads me to believe that the troublesome code might be related to rendering the grid itself.

(Side note: the "This is Golly 1.2 for iOS." label actually appears in Golly 1.3, this isn't a case of me not updating Golly or anything.)

[muzik]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this does look to be pretty partially inside the grid to me:

[muzik]

I've re-tested all issues mentioned so far in this thread after having updated to iPad OS 15.1 and all still seem present.

[erictom333]

I can't get the new version because I can't get the latest version of IOS because my iPad is too old and Apple does not like its customers and I'm REALLY MAD. Rant aside, all of the patterns on Golly on mobile are in a random order. Why does this occur? It does not change when I edit a pattern, and new patterns get inserted randomly.

[muzik]

Would it be possible to make all saved pattern files accessible via Files?

[pzq_alex]

Would it be possible to make all saved pattern files accessible via Files?

Also, opening patterns from Files would be nice. (I have been unable to open the downloaded patterns (of the Book) using Golly on iPad. )

[erictom333]

Rant aside, all of the patterns on Golly on mobile are in a random order. Why does this occur? It does not change when I edit a pattern, and new patterns get inserted randomly.

Anyone?