Start up frank's java cellular automaton program.
Click on the pencil in the tool box.
Select the color yellow from the color box.
Now draw the glider as showed below.
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Press the x key to save current generation on to the undo stack.
Press space bar many times to watch the glider move.
Press the z to go back to the last generation saved.
Press the v to go to the current generation saved.
Press the arrow keys to pan around.
Press the "+" key and the shift key to zoom in.
Press the "-" key to zoom out.
Try copying and pasting the glider.
Click on the square made out of dash lines in the tool box.
Thats the selection tool.
Now make a selection by pressing, moving and releasing the mouse.
The glider should be in the selection.
Press ctrl-C then press ctrl-V
That makes a copy of the glider.
Try moving the selection.
Press the left mouse button inside the selection box,
Hold down the mouse button
and release the mouse button outside the selection box.
Move the selection using the arrow keys with the shift key down.
Flip the selection by pressing ctrl-a or ctrl-z.
Rotate the selection by pressing ctrl-d or ctrl-f.
Press the n key or the space bar to go forward one generation.
Press the m key to go forward 20 generations.
Go to file->new.
You should see a dialog box that saids new universe.
Fill out the form on the dailog box as showed below
board size
width
1024
height
1024
rectangle of random cells
seed
10
offset x
0
offset y
0
width
64
height
64
and click on apply.
You should now see a rectangle made out of random cells.
Press space bar many times to watch it change.
If you put the same seed as you did last time and the same width and height
then you can watch it again.
This is how do make random cells appear in the selection.
Make a selection.
Click on the button that says "use selection" on the dailog box that
says "new universe".
Click on the add cells check box on the dailog box that says "add cells".
Click the apply button.
You should now see random cells inside the selection.