Golly (program)

{{short description|Tool for simulating cellular automata}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Golly

| screenshot = Turing Machine in Golly.png

| caption = Screenshot of Golly

| released = {{Start date and age|2005|07|df=yes}}

| latest release version = v4.3

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2024|05|df=yes}}

| latest preview version =

| programming language = C++ (wxWidgets)

| operating system = Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows, OS X, iOS, Android

| license = GNU GPLv2{{Cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/golly/|title=Golly download|last=|first=|date=|website=sourceforge.net|publisher=|access-date=2017-07-26}}

| latest preview date =

| repo = {{URL|https://sourceforge.net/projects/golly/}}

}}

Golly is a tool for the simulation of cellular automata. It is free open-source software written by Andrew Trevorrow and Tomas Rokicki;{{citation|title=Le royaume du Jeu de la vie|language=French|journal=Pour la Science|first=Jean-Paul|last=Delahaye|url=http://www.lifl.fr/~jdelahay/dnalor/Jeudelavie.pdf|date=April 2009|pages=86–91}}. it can be scripted using Lua{{Cite web|url=http://golly.sourceforge.net/Help/changes.html|title=Golly Help: Changes|last=|first=|date=|website=golly.sourceforge.net|publisher=|access-date=2016-10-02}} or Python.

It includes a hashlife algorithm that can simulate the behavior of very large structured or repetitive patterns such as Paul Rendell's Life universal Turing machine,{{citation|contribution=A universal Turing machine in Conway's Game of Life|title=2011 International Conference on High Performance Computing and Simulation (HPCS)|year=2011|last=Rendell|first=P.|pages=764–772|url=http://uncomp.uwe.ac.uk/CAAA2011/Program_files/764-772.pdf|doi=10.1109/HPCSim.2011.5999906|s2cid=35957181|access-date=2012-12-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311164124/http://uncomp.uwe.ac.uk/CAAA2011/Program_files/764-772.pdf|archive-date=2014-03-11|url-status=dead}} and that is fast enough to simulate some patterns for 2³² or more time units.{{citation|year=2009|volume=15|issue=3|pages=351–375|doi=10.1162/artl.2009.Gotts.009|title=Ramifying feedback networks, cross-scale interactions, and emergent quasi individuals in Conway's Game of Life|first=Nicholas M.|last=Gotts|journal=Artificial Life|pmid=19254180|s2cid=16527203|url=http://cranemtn.com/life/files/gotts-cross-scale-AL-draft.pdf}}. It also includes a large library of predefined patterns in Conway's Game of Life and other rules.{{citation |title=Game of Life Cellular Automata |chapter=Growth and Decay in Life-Like Cellular Automata |authorlink=David Eppstein |last=Eppstein |first=David |editor=Andrew Adamatzky |pages=71–97 |year=2010 |publisher=Springer |doi=10.1007/978-1-84996-217-9_6 |isbn=9781849962179|arxiv=0911.2890 |bibcode=2010golc.book...71E |s2cid=37007937 }}