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|
<sect2 id="lifeapplet">
<title>The Life Applet</title>
<para>
The GNOME panel <application>life</application> is an applet
which runs <quote>the game of life</quote> according to Conway's rules in a
small grid in your panel, with the organism and background colour
constantly changing. It is part of the gnome-applets package.
</para>
<para>
To add this
applet to a <interface>Panel</interface>,
right-click on the <interface>Panel</interface> and choose
<menuchoice>
<guimenu>Panel</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Add to panel</guisubmenu>
<guisubmenu>Applet</guisubmenu>
<guisubmenu>Amusements</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>Game of Life</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>.
or you can issue this command at a command prompt:
<command>life_applet --activate-goad-server=life_applet & </command>
</para>
<figure id="life-applet-fig">
<title>Life Applet</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Life Applet</screeninfo>
<graphic format="png" fileref="figures/life-applet"
srccredit="Eric Baudais">
</graphic>
</screenshot>
</figure>
<sect3 id="lifeapplet-usage">
<title>Usage</title>
<para>
Once it is present, you don't need to do anything to the life
applet. It will run happily on its own.
</para>
<para>
Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the
following items:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<guimenuitem>Randomize</guimenuitem> —
randomizes the game. This will stop it from
getting boring and repeating the same patterns.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<guimenuitem>Help</guimenuitem> —
displays this document.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<guimenuitem>About…</guimenuitem> —
shows basic information about the <application>Game of Life
Applet</application>, inluding the applet's version and the
author's name.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="lifeapplet-rules">
<title>Rules</title>
<para>
The Game of Life as described by Conway in 1970 has the following
rules:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Start with a grid (usually a plain square) of squares. Fill
a proportion of them with cells, randomly placed. This is generation
zero.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Any cell with two or three neighbours survives to the next
generation.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
On any square with no cell and three neighbours, a new cell is
born. On any other square, no new cells are born.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Repeat generations.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The game will eventually end in one of a number of ways:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The death of all cells (theoretical, but uncommon in the life
applet).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
A fixed equilibrium with all remaining cells surviving but
creating no new cells.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
A dynamic equilibrium where the game cycles continually through
a particular sequence of patterns.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
For interest value, the current grid in the life applet is 78 by 78
and the proportion of squares filled with cells is 50%.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="lifeapplet-bugs">
<title>Known Bugs and Limitations</title>
<para>
None known.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="life-authors">
<title>Authors</title>
<para>
The <application>Life Applet</application> was written by George Lebl
(<email>jirka@5z.com</email>). Please send all comments,
suggestions, and bug
reports to the <ulink url="http://bugs.gnome.org" type="http">GNOME
bug tracking database</ulink>. (Instructions for submitting bug
reports can be found <ulink
url="http://bugs.gnome.org/Reporting.html" type="http">
on-line</ulink>. If you are using
GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use <application>Bug Report
Tool</application> (<command>bug-buddy</command>), available in the
<guisubmenu>Utilities</guisubmenu> submenu of <guimenu>Main
Menu</guimenu>, for submitting bug reports.
</para>
<para>
This manual was written by Telsa Gwynne (<email>telsa@linuxchix.org</email>)
and Eric Baudais (<email>baudais@okstate.edu</email>). Please send all comments and
suggestions regarding this manual to the <ulink type="http"
url="http://www.gnome.org/gdp">GNOME Documentation Project</ulink>
by sending an email to <email>docs@gnome.org</email>. You can also
submit comments online by using the <ulink type="http"
url="http://www.gnome.org/gdp/doctable/">GNOME Documentation Status
Table</ulink>.
</para>
<!-- For translations: uncomment this:
<para>
Latin translation was done by ME
(<email>MYNAME@MYADDRESS</email>). Please send all comments and
suggestions regarding this translation to SOMEWHERE.
</para>
-->
</sect3>
<!--
<sect3 id="license">
<title>License</title>
<para>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the <citetitle>GNU General Public
License</citetitle> as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
</para>
<para>
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
<citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle> for more details.
</para>
<para>
A copy of the <citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle> is
included as an appendix to the <citetitle>GNOME Users
Guide</citetitle>. You may also obtain a copy of the
<citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle> from the Free
Software Foundation by visiting <ulink type="http"
url="http://www.fsf.org">their Web site</ulink> or by writing to
<address>
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
<street>59 Temple Place</street> - Suite 330
<city>Boston</city>, <state>MA</state> <postcode>02111-1307</postcode>
<country>USA</country>
</address>
</para>
</sect3>
-->
</sect2>
|
