c_s245010104@stat.appstate.edu (04/03/91)
IN SEARCH OF LIFELINE!!!!! I am an undergradute working on a small paper about Life for an intro to Computer Theory class, and in Winning Ways, the reference list includes: "R.T.Wainwright(editor)Lifeline:a quaterly newsletter for enthusiasts of John Conway's game of Life, #1-11." My school library does not have these, and if possible, I'd like to read over a few. If you know any system that has them on-line, or maybe a library that has copies, please e-mail me at the address on my post. Thanks so much for any help!!! Jon Austin Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
ACW@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Allan C. Wechsler) (04/03/91)
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1991 11:59 EST
From: c_s245010104@stat.appstate.edu
IN SEARCH OF LIFELINE!!!!!
I am an undergradute working on a small paper about Life for an intro
to Computer Theory class, and in Winning Ways, the reference list includes:
"R.T.Wainwright(editor)Lifeline:a quaterly newsletter for enthusiasts of
John Conway's game of Life, #1-11."
My school library does not have these, and if possible, I'd like to read
over a few.
If you know any system that has them on-line, or maybe a library that
has copies, please e-mail me at the address on my post.
Thanks so much for any help!!!
Jon Austin
Appalachian State University,
Boone, NC
Lifeline was a mimeographed newsletter circulated in the early
seventies. I'm sure Gosper has a complete run -- I've CC'd him. But
They're pretty scarce so I doubt he'd lend them, although he might
"smearox" them. I don't think anyone has ever put all the material
on-line.rwg@RUSSIAN.SPA.Symbolics.COM (Bill Gosper) (04/04/91)
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1991 18:34-0500
From: Allan C. Wechsler <ACW@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1991 11:59 EST
From: c_s245010104@stat.appstate.edu
IN SEARCH OF LIFELINE!!!!!
I am an undergradute working on a small paper about Life for an intro
to Computer Theory class, and in Winning Ways, the reference list includes:
"R.T.Wainwright(editor)Lifeline:a quaterly newsletter for enthusiasts of
John Conway's game of Life, #1-11."
My school library does not have these, and if possible, I'd like to read
over a few.
If you know any system that has them on-line, or maybe a library that
has copies, please e-mail me at the address on my post.
Thanks so much for any help!!!
Jon Austin
Appalachian State University,
Boone, NC
Lifeline was a mimeographed newsletter circulated in the early
seventies. I'm sure Gosper has a complete run -- I've CC'd him. But
They're pretty scarce so I doubt he'd lend them, although he might
"smearox" them. I don't think anyone has ever put all the material
on-line.
It's possible that that someone @att did, and emailed it to Schroeppel for
his Life database. Or was that just life logs? At any rate, after issue
number 3 or 4, things got a little nugatory. Wainwright's readership sort
of bifurcated into a few hardcores, and a bunch of diddlers. The stuff
from the hardcores was too technical and too voluminous for Lifeline,
hence, Dirty Little Secret: Wainwright smearoxed and redistributed (among
the hardcores) the raw, unbound, hardcore stuff under the title LifeFanatic.
(Two or three bundles, anyway.)
My life box is unhandy just now, and may not even contain a complete set of
LifeLines. And several of the ones I have (as well as the Fanatics) are very
poor copies.
Since the demise of LifeLine, there have been intensive developments separated
by long quiet periods, but just about every LifeLine item has been "several-upped".
E.g., we now have new glider guns of period 1100 and 94, plus an unrelated
period 47 oscillator. Hickerson has a computer program which found a
spaceship with speed c/3. In fact a whole grammar of them. Wainwright has
new puffer trains. Hickerson has built a whole memory unit, with add1, sub1
and zerop. He also has growth rates of t log t and t^(3/2), plus an
unbounded pop that does not approach infinity! (Think!) I have a bunch
of period 46 glider logic which implements, e.g., compact, large period
pseudorandom number generators. Hickerson has one, also a binary counter,
based on snakes*. Etc.
*No, not adders.
David Buckingham (and he alone) has mastered the black art of constructing
preposterous objects by smashing together clouds of gliders.
Also, there have been some interesting hardware and software approaches to
simulation. 60 or 120 hz Life, and/or largish (1000 x 1000) fields are
qualitatively different. I hope you soon get to see them, preferably in color.
Also, the bounding box of the period 1100 gun is about 13000 by 13000, and thus
required CAD and drastic spacetime compression to construct and debug.
Hickerson has shown that there are at most a finite number of impossible oscillator
periods. Etc.
If you have a specific area of interest, pipe up.