<sect1 id="lifeapplet">
  <title>The Life Applet</title>
  <para>
    The GNOME panel <application>life</application> is an applet
    which runs <quote>the game of life</quote> according to Conway's rules in a
    small grid in your panel, with the organism and background colour
    constantly changing. It is part of the gnome-applets package.
  </para>
  <para>
    To add this
    applet to a <interface>Panel</interface>, 
    right-click on the <interface>Panel</interface> and choose
    <menuchoice>
      <guimenu>Panel</guimenu>
      <guisubmenu>Add to panel</guisubmenu>
      <guisubmenu>Applet</guisubmenu>
      <guisubmenu>Amusements</guisubmenu>
      <guimenuitem>Game of Life</guimenuitem>
    </menuchoice>.
    or you can issue this command at a command prompt: 
    <command>life_applet --activate-goad-server=life_applet &amp; </command>
  </para>

  <figure id="life-applet-fig">
    <title>Life Applet</title>
    <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>Life Applet</screeninfo>
      <graphic format="png" fileref="life-applet" 
	     srccredit="Eric Baudais">
      </graphic>
    </screenshot>
  </figure>

    <sect2 id="lifeapplet-usage">
     <title>Usage</title>
     <para>
       Once it is present, you don't need to do anything to the life
       applet. It will run happily on its own.
     </para>

    <para>
      Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the
      following items:
      <itemizedlist>
	
	<listitem>
	  <para>
	    <guimenuitem>Randomize</guimenuitem> &mdash;
	    randomizes the game.  This will stop it from 
	    getting boring and repeating the same patterns.
	  </para>
	</listitem>
	
	<listitem>
	  <para>
	    <guimenuitem>Help</guimenuitem> &mdash;
	    displays this document.
	  </para>
	</listitem>
	
	<listitem>
	  <para>
	    <guimenuitem>About&hellip;</guimenuitem> &mdash;
	    shows basic information about the <application>Game of Life 
	    Applet</application>, inluding the applet's version and the
	    author's name.
	  </para>
	</listitem>
	
      </itemizedlist>
    </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="lifeapplet-rules">
     <title>Rules</title>
     <para>
       The Game of Life as described by Conway in 1970 has the following 
       rules:
     </para>
     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         Start with a grid (usually a plain square) of squares. Fill 
         a proportion of them with cells, randomly placed. This is generation
         zero.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         Any cell with two or three neighbours survives to the next
         generation.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         On any square with no cell and three neighbours, a new cell is
         born. On any other square, no new cells are born.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         Repeat generations.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </itemizedlist>

     <para>
       The game will eventually end in one of a number of ways:
     </para>

     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         The death of all cells (theoretical, but uncommon in the life
         applet).
       </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         A fixed equilibrium with all remaining cells surviving but
         creating no new cells.
       </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <para>
         A dynamic equilibrium where the game cycles continually through
         a particular sequence of patterns.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </itemizedlist>

     <para>
       For interest value, the current grid in the life applet is 78 by 78 
       and the proportion of squares filled with cells is 50&percnt;.
     </para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="lifeapplet-bugs">
     <title>Known Bugs and Limitations</title>
     <para>
       None known.
     </para>
    </sect2>

  <sect2 id="authors">
   <title>Authors</title>
   <para>
    The <application>Life Applet</application> was written by George Lebl
    (<email>jirka@5z.com</email>).  Please send all comments,
    suggestions, and bug 
    reports to the <ulink url="http://bugs.gnome.org" type="http">GNOME
    bug tracking database</ulink>. (Instructions for submitting bug
    reports can be found <ulink
    url="http://bugs.gnome.org/Reporting.html" type="http">
    on-line</ulink>. If you are using
    GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use <application>Bug Report
    Tool</application> (<command>bug-buddy</command>), available in the
    <guisubmenu>Utilities</guisubmenu> submenu of <guimenu>Main
    Menu</guimenu>, for submitting bug reports.
   </para>

   <para>
    This manual was written by Telsa Gwynne (<email>telsa@linuxchix.org</email>)
    and Eric Baudais (<email>baudais@okstate.edu</email>). Please send all comments and
    suggestions regarding this manual to the <ulink type="http"
    url="http://www.gnome.org/gdp">GNOME Documentation Project</ulink> 
    by sending an email to <email>docs@gnome.org</email>. You can also
    submit comments online by using the <ulink type="http"
    url="http://www.gnome.org/gdp/doctable/">GNOME Documentation Status
    Table</ulink>.
   </para>

   <!-- For translations: uncomment this:

   <para>  
    Latin translation was done by ME
    (<email>MYNAME@MYADDRESS</email>). Please send all  comments  and
    suggestions regarding this translation to SOMEWHERE.
   </para>

   -->

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="license">
   <title>License</title>
   <para>
    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the <citetitle>GNU General Public
    License</citetitle> as published by the Free Software Foundation;
    either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
    version.
   </para>
   <para>
    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
    WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    <citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle> for more details.
   </para>
   <para>
    A copy of the <citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle> is
    included as an appendix to the <citetitle>GNOME Users
    Guide</citetitle>.  You may also obtain a copy of the
    <citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle> from the Free
    Software Foundation by visiting <ulink type="http"
    url="http://www.fsf.org">their Web site</ulink> or by writing to
    <address>
     Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     <street>59 Temple Place</street> - Suite 330
     <city>Boston</city>, <state>MA</state> <postcode>02111-1307</postcode>
     <country>USA</country>
    </address>
   </para>
  </sect2>
</sect1>
