Golly Help: Hints and Tips

Some useful hints and tips

- To view a pattern file just drop it onto the Golly app or onto the Golly window if the app is already running.
- When Golly starts up it looks for scripts called golly-start.pl or golly-start.py in the same directory as the Golly application and then in a user-specific data directory (see the Preferences item for the likely path on your system). If either script is found then it is automatically executed.
- Displaying the population count can cause a significant slow-down when generating large patterns, especially when using HashLife. If you want to generate at maximum speed then just hit ";" to hide the status bar. You can toggle the status bar at any time, even in full screen mode.
- Editing operations are fastest in QuickLife.
- Pasting large, sparse patterns is much faster if using Or mode, or if the current pattern is empty, or if the paste rectangle is completely outside the current pattern edges.
- The hand cursor can be used to scroll the view by clicking and dragging. If you drag the cursor outside any view edge then scrolling will occur continuously; ie. you don't have to move the cursor. If the cursor is outside any corner (ie. outside two edges) then the scrolling direction will be diagonal.
- Actually, continuous scrolling also occurs if the hand cursor is dragged onto any view edge or corner. This allows such scrolling to occur in full screen mode.
- 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.
- Avoid the temptation to put your own patterns, scripts or rules inside Golly's supplied folders — it will make it difficult to upgrade to a future version. A much better idea is to create separate folders for your own files and put those folders alongside the supplied folders, so your Golly folder looks something like this:

  Golly |  |
  Golly.exe |  | (Golly.app on Mac, golly on Linux)
  Help |  |
  Patterns |  |
  Rules |  |
  Scripts |  |
  My-downloads |  | (contains all your downloaded files; select in Preferences > File)
  My-patterns |  | (contains all your pattern files)
  My-rules |  | (contains all your .rule files; select in Preferences > Control)
  My-scripts |  | (contains all your .pl/.py files)

  Use File > Set Patterns Folder and select the Golly folder. Now all your folders (and the supplied folders) are visible in the patterns panel, so with just a few clicks you can load any pattern, run any script, or switch to any .rule file. Or you can right-click (or control-click) on any of those files to open them in your preferred text editor. When upgrading to a new version of Golly, simply drag all the distributed files and folders into your Golly folder and replace the old versions.