Help Screen

The Help screen behaves like a simplified browser and is used to display HTML information on a variety of topics.

Special links

A number of Golly-specific links are used for various purposes:

• edit:file
  Display the given file in a modal view.
• get:url
  Download the specified file and process it according to its type:
  • A HTML file (.htm or .html) is displayed in the Help screen. Note that this HTML file can contain get links with partial URLs. For a good example of their use, see the LifeWiki Pattern Archive.
  • A text file (.txt or .doc or a name containing "readme") is displayed in a modal view.
  • A zip file's contents are displayed in the Help screen.
  • A rule file (.rule) is installed into Documents/Rules/ and Golly then switches to the corresponding rule.
  • A pattern file is loaded and displayed in the Golly screen.
• lexpatt:pattern
  Load the given Life Lexicon pattern and display it in the Golly screen.
• open:file
  Load the given pattern and display it in the Golly screen.
• rule:rulename
  Load the given rule and switch to the Golly screen.
• unzip:zip:file
  Extract a file from the given zip file and process it in the same manner as a get link (see above). Golly creates unzip links when it opens a zip file and displays its contents in the Help screen.