Cellular Automata:

Your first "Life" experience.

First, select one fo the first few items (patterns) from the upper left combo-box below the cell field. (One withOUT an asterisk next to it. Items with asterisks require arguments. We'll get to those in a few minutes.)

Now click on the Next button.

Click it again. And again.

By doing this you can single-step through the pattern's evolution.

Your second "Life" experience.

Select another pattern that doesn't require arguments.

Now click on the Start button.

The pattern will evolve automatically.

Tip:It's a good idea to click the "Stop" button between patterns because if you don't the next pattern will start off at full speed and that's not usually what you want to happen.

You should see the speed selection set to "Fast". Change is to "Slow" and start another pattern. This will make it easier to watch and analyze the steps between each generation, though using the "Next" button gives you the best opportunity to do that.

Your third "Life" lesson.

Put your mouse cursor over the cell field. Press and SLOWLY drag the mouse over the cell field. You will leave a trail of cells as you go. NOTICE: Don't go too fast or you will leave a trail of cells so widely spaced that they will die out after only two or three generations.

You can also creat cells one at a time by positioning the cursor over a cell and clicking on it. A living cell will turn off, a dead cell will turn on.

Now, use the "Next" or "Start" buttons to start the process and watch as patterns emerge and change.

Your fourth "Life" lesson.

Now we're going to use arguments. On the left side of the second row of controls are three combo-boxes labeled "X:", "Y:", and "Z:" with the numbers 1 to 111 in them. Pick a number from the LEFT box, labelled "X:".

Now, select a pattern from the combo-box above the arguments. This time, you want to pick one that DOES have an asterisk next to it.

If, for example, you selected "37" from the lower left combo-box and you then selected "Row *" from the upper left combo-box, you would now see a row of 37 cells in the center of the cell field. You can now use "Next" or "Start" to see what this pattern will evolve into.

If you selected 23 from the lower left combo-box and "Pyramid *" from the upper left combo-box, you would see a 23-line pyramid of cells.

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that you must select your argument(s) first, then select the pattern from the upper left combo-box. If you change the argument, you must then re-select the pattern to cause it to be regenerated on the cell field.

Your fifth "Life" lesson.

The only pattern that uses two arguments is "Rectangle **". Now, you don't have to use two arguments. If you only set the left, or "X:", argument, "Rectangle **" will use the left value for both arguments and produce a square pattern of cells. But, if you select values for both left and right arguments, you get a rectangle of that size.

Algorithms using the third, or "Z:", argument are under development, but are not yet implemented. (They're commented out in the code I've put on this web site since they are not yet fully debugged.) Therefore, the third argument has no effect on any patterns produced in this version of the applet.

Your sixth "Life" lesson.

The random density percentage should be initially set at "10%". If you just click the button labeled "Random" you will get a psuedo-random distribution of cells across the cell field. Click "Start" and watch this random distribution of cells evolve into something else.

The density percentages go from 10% to 50%. Try different settings and see what happens. The results, no matter what setting you use, will be totally unpredictable.

Your seventh "Life" lesson.

This last feature is most useful at lower resolutions where editing cells is easiest. We're going to look at using the Save/Restore registers.

Let's say you're manually editing a pattern of cells as in the third "Life" lesson above. But, if you run the pattern (by clicking "Start") and it is almost what you want, but not quite, you'll have to redraw the whole thing all over again.

Unless you save it!

Draw a pattern of cells or, to make it easier, select a pattern from the upper left combo-box. Now, click on the "Save" button. If "0" is display in the numeric combo-box to the immediate left of the "Save" button, you will have just saved the pattern in the first (zeroeth) save register. Now click "Start" and let it run until you've had enough, the click "Stop".

Now, click the "Restore" button. The pattern comes back!

Edit some changes to this pattern, Select "1" from the combo-box to the immediate left of the "Save" button, and click "Save" again.

Run this revised pattern, click "Stop", then click "Restore" and your revised pattern comes back. Change the register number back to "0" and click "Restore" and you've got your original pattern back again.

You have up to 10 (0 through 9) registers to use in this way.

Time to get on with "Life".

Below is a table of some really nifty patterns I've tried. Now, go have fun!

Below is a higher density field. It's almost impossible to manually edit anything, but it can handle larger patterns.

User's Guide

A detailed description of all features, as well as access to the source code, is going to be provided in the near future. This will probably come in bits and pieces as I find time to update the information on this page.