Changes in version 1.4 (released May 2008)
- Editing and other actions are now allowed while generating a pattern.
- Golly saves files in the standard user-specific data directory on each platform
rather than in the application directory. However, you can still keep
the GollyPrefs file in the application directory if you prefer that option.
- Right-click or control-click on a pattern/script file to open the file in
a text editor. Use the new button in Preferences > File
to select your preferred text editor.
- Pasting a clipboard pattern can now change to the specified rule, depending
on the option set in Preferences > Edit.
- The Preferences dialog can be opened from the help window by clicking
on special links like the examples above.
- Added Reset button to tool bar and Duplicate Layer button to layer bar.
- A duplicated layer now gets a copy of the original layer's undo/redo history.
- Improved the automatic detection of Perl/Python code used by Run Clipboard.
- Added datadir command so scripts can
save files in Golly's user-specific data directory.
- Added help command to open given HTML file
in help window.
- A warning is displayed if a bad rule string is detected while loading a pattern.
- Added support for reading WinLifeSearch output.
- An error message is displayed if you try to load a JPEG file.
- Fixed some problems if you quit Golly while running a script.
- Fixed problem shrinking selection while generating a pattern.
- Fixed "Rules differ" warning when undoing/redoing generating changes using hashing.
- Fixed problems with incorrect file selections in Win app's directory pane.
- Fixed bug in Mac app's activate event handler.
- Fixed bug in Linux/GTK app that prevented using shift-space as a keyboard shortcut.
- Mac app allows option-E/I/N/U/` to be used as keyboard shortcuts.
- Golly can be built for 64-bit platforms.
Changes in version 1.3 (released November 2007)
- Added unlimited undo/redo; see the Edit Menu help
for details. For consistency with Undo, the Reset item now restores
the starting selection and layer name.
- Keyboard shortcuts are now configurable using
Preferences > Keyboard.
Note that you can also specify key combinations to open a pattern,
run a script, or show any HTML file in the help window.
- Golly can be scripted using Perl;
see the new Perl Scripting help.
- Added pop-plot.pl/py to the Scripts folder for creating population plots.
- The metafier.py script now creates the metafied pattern in a separate layer.
- Added getstring command for
getting user input via a dialog box (glife's getstring function still
exists but is deprecated).
- Added hash command to speed up oscar.pl/py.
- The parse and
transform commands
have optional parameters.
- A script is aborted if a progress dialog appears and you hit Cancel.
- The Open/Run Recent submenus show relative paths for files inside the Golly folder.
- Added a Clear Missing Files item to the Open/Run Recent submenus.
- The Control menu's Go and Stop items have been replaced by a single Start/Stop
item for consistency with the tool bar's start/stop button.
- The Control menu has a Set Generation... item for changing the generation count,
or you can click in the "Generation=..." text in the status bar.
Scripts can use the new setgen command.
- Flip operations are much faster.
- The About box uses Brice Due's Golly ticker.
- Reduced chances of out-of-memory error while loading a large .mc file.
- Fixed crash if a pattern update occurred while saving a .mc file.
- Fixed bug pasting a macrocell pattern.
- Fixed bug reading an empty macrocell pattern.
- Fixed bug not marking a layer as modified after clearing the entire pattern.
- Fixed bug if apostrophe was in Python script path or file name.
- Fixed drawing problems on Mac OS 10.3.9.
Changes in version 1.2 (released April 2007)
- Golly supports multiple layers;
see the new Layer Menu help for details.
- Added layer-related scripting commands.
See heisenburp.py and envelope.py in the Scripts folder for how these
commands can be used.
- Added other useful scripting commands:
exit,
check and
note.
- The putcells command has optional
parameters, including a new mode parameter.
- Clicked lexicon patterns are loaded into a separate "lexicon" layer
(and the clipboard is no longer changed).
- If a pattern has been modified then its layer name is prefixed with an asterisk
and a "save changes" dialog will appear before certain actions, such as
opening a pattern file or quitting Golly. The dialog can be disabled
via check boxes in Preferences > Layer.
- Scrolling is optional if the pencil/cross/hand cursor is dragged outside
the view window; see Preferences > Edit.
- The hand cursor no longer has a pointing finger.
- A .py file selected via Open Pattern is run as a script.
- If golly-start.py exists in the same folder as the application
then it is automatically executed when Golly starts up.
- New tool bar buttons, including a single start/stop button.
- Reset and Use Hashing can be selected while a pattern is generating.
- Renamed Flip Up-Down to Flip Top-Bottom.
- GTK app no longer does unnecessary buffered drawing.
- X11 app has a vertical tool bar which can be toggled.
- Mac app has a creator code (GoLy) and .mc/rle files are saved with an
appropriate type and creator.
- Fixed a bug if Win app given a long-running script on command line.
- Fixed a bug in the advance and evolve commands if using hashing with Wolfram rule.
- Fixed a delay bug.
Changes in version 1.1 (released November 2006)
- Added Save Extended RLE option (initially ticked) to the File menu.
An extended RLE file stores the pattern position and generation count
(if > 0) so they can be restored when the file is loaded.
- Macrocell files also store the generation count if > 0.
- Non-extended RLE files are now loaded so that 0,0 is at the top left
corner of the pattern rather than in the middle of the pattern.
- Golly can read BMP/GIF/PNG/TIFF files and paste bitmap data.
All non-white pixels become live cells.
- Golly can read pattern files using David Bell's dblife format.
- Starting patterns are saved in a temporary file rather than in memory.
This is much faster when hashing (saving a macrocell file is very quick).
- Random Fill is much faster in typical cases.
- Escape key can be used to stop generating.
- Numerous additions and updates to the pattern collection.
- Added fuse-watcher.py, metafier.py and shift.py to the Scripts folder.
- More mouse interaction is allowed while a script is running.
A script can be aborted by clicking the stop button in the tool bar
or by selecting Stop in the Control menu.
- Resizing the help window no longer changes the scroll position.
- Fixed a bug loading huge macrocell files.
- Fixed an obscure bug in the non-hashing algorithm.
- Path to Scripts folder is only added to Python's sys.path once.
- Fixed rect bug in Scripts/glife/__init__.py (thanks to Dan Hoey).
- Golly's code can be compiled with a Unicode build of wxWidgets.
Changes in version 1.0 (released June 2006)
- Added Python script support;
see the new Python Scripting help.
- Golly is available for Linux/GTK.
- Mac app is a Universal Binary (4 times faster on an Intel Mac).
- Added ability to change various colors via
Preferences > Color.
The Black on White option has been replaced by Swap Cell Colors.
- Increased the base step limit from 100 to 10,000.
- Added Show Hash Info option to the Control menu.
- Added Show Exact Numbers option to the View menu.
- Save Pattern preserves comments when writing to an existing file.
- Added tool bar buttons for toggling patterns and scripts.
- Included the latest release of the Life Lexicon.
- Renamed Flip Horizontally/Vertically to Flip Up-Down/Left-Right.
- Fixed disabled menu item bug after closing a modal dialog on Mac OS 10.4.
- Fixed a couple of rule-related bugs in the non-hashing algorithm.
- Fixed crash due to very long rule strings.
- Fixed paste positioning bugs at scale 1:2.
- Fixed error if Win app is closed while script is running.
- Fixed problem if Win app is closed when window(s) minimized.
Changes in version 0.95 (released January 2006)
- Stephen Silver's Life Lexicon has been integrated
into the help. Note that clicking on a lexicon pattern loads it into the
Golly window.
- Added an Open Recent submenu to the File menu.
- Added Show Patterns and Change Folder to the File menu.
- Added a Preferences dialog to the File menu (app menu on Mac).
- Added more items to the Edit menu: Clear Outside, Shrink Selection, Random Fill,
Flip Vertically, Flip Horizontally, Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Anticlockwise.
- The clipboard pattern is displayed when pasting.
- Pasting large, sparse patterns is much faster when using Or mode.
- Added more items to the View menu: Fit Selection, Restore Origin and Set Scale.
- The thumb scroll range is adjustable
(see Preferences > View).
- The Reset item now restores the rule, scale, location, step size and
hashing option to the values they had at generation 0.
- Removed Max Hash Memory from Control menu
(now set in Preferences > Control).
- The Rule dialog lets you select/add/delete named rules.
If a rule has a name then it's shown in the main window's title bar.
- Hit control-space to advance the selection, or shift-space to advance
everything outside the selection. The generation count will not change.
- The delete key is a shortcut for Clear, or shift-delete for Clear Outside.
- F5 to F9 can be used to set cursor modes.
- Hit "s" to shrink the selection and fit it in the current view.
- Hit "0" to change the origin to the cell under the cursor.
- Hit "9" to restore the true origin.
- Hit "6" to set the scale to 1:16.
- Hit "," to open the Preferences dialog.
- If the help window is in front, hit "+" and "-" to change the font size.
- While dragging the mouse to make (or modify) a selection, the escape key
can be used to cancel the operation and restore the original selection.
- The escape key can no longer be used to stop generating.
- In zoom in/out mode, right-click or control-click zooms in the opposite direction.
- The mouse wheel can be used for zooming, regardless of cursor mode.
- Commas are used to make large status bar numbers more readable.
- Fixed a hashing bug that could cause advancing by the wrong step.
- Fixed a bug in Mac app when returning from full screen mode.
- Fixed a bug in Win app that prevented space bar being used to stop generating.
- Fixed Win app's cross cursor (now visible on a black background).
Changes in version 0.91 (released October 2005)
- Return key can be used to start/stop generating.
- Space bar can be used to stop generating.
- Win app puts CR+LF in clipboard data.
- Fixed occasional bug when +/- pressed while hashing.
Changes in version 0.9 (released October 2005)
- Implemented pattern saving (as RLE or macrocell format).
- Implemented cell editing and selecting.
- Implemented scrolling via hand cursor.
- Edit menu has a Cursor Mode submenu (items match new tool bar buttons).
- Hit "c" to cycle through all cursors.
- Win app can now read gzipped pattern files.
- Can now display comments in pattern files.
- Added Patterns folder to distribution.
- Toggling the hashing option doesn't change the pattern or generation count.
- The Reset item is smarter about restoring the starting pattern.
- Fixed colored frame after dropping pattern file onto Mac app's main window.
- Fixed horizontal scroll bar problem in Mac app's help window.
- The help window's cursor now gets updated while generating.
- Fixed problem with location of help window in X11 app.
- Added limited clipboard support to X11 app.
- Golly has a new app icon based on Galaxy, a period-8 oscillator.
Changes in version 0.2 (released July 2005)
- Added support for B0 rules.
- Golly comes to the front after dropping a pattern file onto main window.
- The help window can move behind the main window in Win/X11 apps.
- Text in the help window can be selected and copied to the clipboard.
- Fixed keyboard shortcuts in the help window.
- Fixed RLE rule problem in Mac app.
- Fixed menu and tool bar update problems in Mac/Win apps.
- Fixed some cosmetic problems in Win app.
Initial version 0.1 released July 2005