Commander X16

LIFE.PRG is an implementation of Conway's Game of Life compatible with the Commander X16 Emulator R38 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life).

Configuring the Grid Dimensions:

D - Toggles the grid dimensions between 29x29 (which is the default), 30x30, 59x59, and 60x60 options. The cell grid is always configured as a perfect square to permit more degrees of symmetry. Odd and even dimensions are both supported since they have different symmetry. The dimension of the length and width is illustrated in the upper right corner of the display. The 29x29 and 30x30 grid dimensions utilize 40x30 text mode, whereas the 59x59 and 60x60 grid dimensions utilize 80x60 text mode. The grid is cleared when the cell grid dimensions are changed.

Initializing the Cell Grid:

C - Clears all of the grid cells.

E - Enters edit mode to manually configure the grid cells. The cursor keys are used to move the cursor pointer, the space bar toggles the state of the cell at the current cursor position, and E key is used to exit edit mode. In edit mode the row and column coordinates of the cursor are displayed in the upper left corner in the format "row,column". The mouse cursor is reused as a cursor pointer but the mouse is not currently supported.

R - Randomizes the grid cells.

H - Randomizes the grid with horizontal symmetry.

V - Randomizes the grid with vertical symmetry.

B - Randomizes the grid with both horizontal and vertical symmetry.

F - Randomizes the grid with full symmetry (horizontal, vertical, and both diagonals).

The edit mode entered by pressing the E key can be used to configure different patterns such as still-lifes, oscillators, and space ships (some of which are described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life#Examples_of_patterns). The H, V, B, and F symmetrical configuration options generally result in more visually appealing patterns than the R configuration option.

Iterating the Grid:

U - Updates the grid a single time.

S - Starts repetitive update of the grid, press S a second time to stop.

The number of iterations performed on the cell grid is displayed in the upper left corner except in cell grid edit mode described above. The iteration count is initialized to zero at startup and reset to zero when the grid dimensions are changed via the D key or any of the grid initialization commands are executed (via the C, E, R, H, V, B, or F keys). When iterating the grid the left and right sides of the cell grid are considered to be adjacent as well as the top and bottom resulting in a toroidal array.

Potential Future Enhancements:

There are several potential future enhancements under consideration such as optimization to speed up the iteration of the cell grid, context-sensitive help, support for user-configurable grid sizes, support for multiple colors (e.g. based on state of a cell and the number of live neighbors), and support for other life-like cellular automaton (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-like_cellular_automaton).

Life Video