Inverter
An inverter (or inverting reflector) is a device which can be used to invert the presence or absence of spaceships in an intermittent stream of spaceships. The device must be a gun whose period matches the base period of the stream, since if there are no input spaceships then the device must produce spaceships as the result of the inversion. Inverters provide a way to produce a NOT logic operation on a stream.
There are several ways to produce an inverter. The simplest method is to simply hit the output of a gun with the input stream to delete its spaceships, producing an output stream that is always turned 90 degrees from the input stream. An example is the northernmost p30 gun in the glider duplicator example pattern.
Inline inverter
An inline inverter is an inverter whose output stream is in the same direction as the input. The term also refers to the following example with a Gosper glider gun specifically:
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#N Inline inverter
#C http://conwaylife.com/wiki/Inline_inverter
x = 36, y = 13, rule = B3/S23
16bo$17bo$15b3o2$23bobo$21bo3bo$13bo7bo$12b4o4bo4bo8b2o$11b2obobo4bo
12b2o$2o8b3obo2bo3bo3bo$2o9b2obobo6bobo$12b4o$13bo!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
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