Installing LogoLife
To install LogoLife, simply copy the LogoLife folder to your
hard disk. You do this by dragging the LogoLife folder to your
hard disk icon. Once the folder is copied to your hard drive,
you are ready to go. If you downloaded LogoLife, then you got
a ZIP file. Just unzip the contents of the file onto your hard
drive and you are ready.
Running LogoLife
Running LogoLife is as simple as installing it. You simply open
the LogoLife folder that you copied to your hard drive by double
clicking on it. Inside this folder you will find the LogoLife
application. Double click on the LogoLife application icon. This
will cause the LogoLife program to be launched and the LogoLife
menus to be displayed in the menu bar.
To begin a new population of LogoLife turtles, you must select
the New Population item in the File menu. This will first display
a dialog box that allows you to control the population's
characteristics. You can accept the default values. Click the Ok
button. This will open a new population window, in which turtles
will be randomly created, and each turtle will display its figure
in a small square.
It will take some time, depending on the complexity of each
turtle's algorithm, to draw all of the figures for the entire
population, so please be patient while this is done. You may
click in other applications during this time, and LogoLife will
compute the figures in the background.
The Population Window
The Population Window is a non-scrollable, fixed size window,
which will display turtle figures. When a new population is
evolved, the window will display all of the population's figures
in small rectangles arranged in rows and columns.
You left-click on a particular figure to make that figure's
turtle the currently selected turtle. The selected turtle is
identified by a black border around the figure of the turtle
to distinguish it from the other turtles.
A selected turtle may have several operations performed upon
it. For instance, you may have the turtle's figure blown up to
be displayed in the full contents of the population window.
This allows you to inspect the finer details of the turtle's
figure. You can also print a turtle's figure, save its algorithm
to a file, or copy a turtle to the clipboard. Once on the clipboard,
you can paste a turtle's drawing into any other Windows program, or
you can paste it into another turtle's square (competition and
survival). You may also dope a selected turtle with another turtle's
algorithm that was earlier saved to a file, and finally, you may
mutate a selected turtle to change its algorithm, and thus, its
figure.
Notice that there is a border around the figure of all of the turtles.
If the border is blue, then it is an indication that the turtle is
currently chosen to participate in the reproduction of the next
generation of turtles, based on its calculated fitness. If the border
displayed around a turtle is red, then it will not be chosen for
reproduction to create the next generation of turtles.
You can choose all turtles for participation in the next generation
using the Choose All Turtles command in the File menu. You may chose
none of the turtles for participation in the next generation by
selecting the Chose No Turtles command in the File menu.