	                        Life 
                       Version 3.3, July, 2001
	       Copyright (C) 1991-2001 Ivan Lee Herring
                        All Rights Reserved
 

Description
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Life generates pixel Life according to preset 'rules'. 
It requires Microsoft Windows (R) 95/98 OS and Direct X for birds to fly, and winmm.dll or mmsystem.dll for birds to sing (one of them should have been included with the OS). If true colors are not available then neither are much variation in color selection... 24 or 32 bit color, graphic accelerated cards recommended.
Life: is an adaption of "the game of Life" (not to be confused with the board game) by Conway wherein cells live {remain}, multiply {appear} and die {disappear} according to rules. Life has evolved into 2D Cellular Automata having attributes (Grass-Rabbit-Fox (GRF), Ants, Termites) and on into 3D characters (Birds)... 


Installation
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Uninstall any previous versions... Some unzippers run the setup program as a function of unzipping, if so do it.  Else: Create a directory (temp), move the zip file into the directory and Unzip the zip file.  Double click the Setup program to install Life. An Icon for the program is placed in the selected Desktop/Menu. Delete the (temp) directory. Uninstall is a portion of the program and operates per Windows uninstall.  After uninstall some files (working files created during program operation) will be left in the directory... just delete the directory after uninstallation.  


Life Features
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Create life at 39 x 24, 78 x 48, 156 x 96, or 780 x 480 cells.  Select from lifes on file, generate your own scenarios, or random generation of life.  Change lifes colors to display the growth, life, overture, and decay of civilization. Right clicking on the Image will activate a pop-up menu for control of lifes possibilities.  Slow down life for viewing lifes pleasures.
View Alien rules of life in action as they create random patterns (is random patterns an oxy moron ?... they do), 'snowflakes' and mazes.
Cellular Automata such as Grass-Rabbits-Foxes (GRF), Termites, and Ants are activated at the touch of a button.  Birds (boids) fly and flock in simulation at your command using 'sliders' controlling the flight characteristics.  Torso is inactive, yet is poised to walk into future versions...
Help pops up, comments in the status bar, at the press of a [?] button, and at the press of the F1 key. 
The forms 'remember' where they were last placed.
A background for the birds is provided as BACK400.bmp... any bmp file may be used, just rename the file to BACK400.bmp.
Sample bird and song files are included.

Known Problems
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My coding is based on my knowledge, interpretation, capabilities and idea of "fun"... there are other 'better' programs available... see the html files for information and links... 

Bird name, color, song... are probably wrong...
Song is the wav file selected... song files are selected and their filename is stored inside the birds file, ... very poor sound until i record better and all bird songs... am building a parabolic microphone to eliminate the HUM heard in all the songs.  When all songs get recorded they will play when selected and pressed by the ~ wave button and during flight... when that type bird eats at the feeder, is attacked, attacks, or simply wants to sing... currently the wav files are about 200Kb... wav files are stored in the Life directory and selection of any wav file (your bird songs or any wav file) for a birds song is allowed there. 


Reporting Bugs
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If you experience an uncaught exception, General Protection Fault (GPF), or something you believe is a bug (or just do not like how something 'works'), please send e-mail to ilh2o@ezl.com  Please do not assume someone else will report it.  I will try to resolve reported bugs as quickly as possible.  However, I can't resolve bugs that are not reported... i will just keep going the way i think it should be and changing what I do not like.

Please describe the problem in as much detail as possible. In your e-mail message, please include the following information:
Which image was being generated, its parameters and screen size.
The version of Life, operating system, and version (as shown in the About dialog box). 


Feature Requests
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Please let me know what features you would like to see in the next release-version of Life so that i can prioritize them based on your input. You may e-mail feature requests to me at the following address:
     ilh2o@ezl.com

To-Do list for planned enhancements:
Create Variations on the Rules of Life to model chosen scenarios.
Dolphins, Mazes, Torso
Open GL 3D
...  my home page...  http://www.ezl.com/~ilh2o/


Terms & Registration Information
--------------------------------
"Life is a shareware program. This means that you may test it free of charge. You may also distribute it freely to others so they may try it."
Life is $20 Shareware.  For information on registration, see the "License Registration" topic in the online documentation (see Help/Help Topics), or the included LICENSE.TXT and ORDER.TXT files... or just send money to the address below.


Contact Information
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  Ivan Lee Herring
  580 Western
  Collinsville, IL 62234 USA.

  e-mail:  ilh2o@ezl.com
  my home page...  http://www.ezl.com/~ilh2o/
