Path: wupost!spool.mu.edu!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!marble.uknet.ac.uk!uknet!brunel!cs89ssg
From: cs89ssg@brunel.ac.uk (Sunil Gupta)
Newsgroups: alt.sources
Subject: cellular automata simulator Part 1/2
Message-ID: <C4tLF2.2qt@brunel.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Apr 93 19:42:37 GMT
Followup-To: alt.sources.bugs
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
Lines: 500
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Archive-name: automata
Submitted-by: cs89ssg@brunel.ac.uk
CELLULAR AUTOMATA SIMULATOR ( Version 1.0A APRIL 1993)
------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
This is another example of a reasonably serious application
written using the "Simple User Interface Toolkit" (SUIT).
It follows on from my petri-net simulator which was released
Nov 1992.
Please read the DISCLAIMER and SUIT sections below.
ABOUT
The program will not run very well (if at all) on a
monochrome system. it was designed for colour.
The program is operated entirely through a graphics interface:
INTERFACE
.---------------------------------------------------------------.
| .----------------------------------------------------. |
| | .----------------------------------------. | |
| | STEP | | | |
| | GRID | | | |
| | CLEAR | | | |
| | | | | |
| | FILE | | | |
| | | G R A P H I C S | | |
| |.-------.| | | |
|.-----.|| || | | |
|| ||| RULES || | | |
|| ||| LIST || | | |
||ABORT||| || | | |
|| ||| || | | |
|`-----'|| |`----------------------------------------' | |
| |`-------' | |
| | rows### cols### states### RIBBON-RIBBON | |
| EXIT | | |
| `----------------------------------------------------' |
`--------------------------------------------------------------'
The graphics area contains rectangular cells which can have
various states. The state is incremented by clicking with
the mouse, and decremented by pressing a key when the mouse
is over the cell.
To operate this program all you have to do is draw something
in the graphics area, click on a rule, and see what happens.
STEP toggles whether the automata single steps or
continues execution until the operation has been
stopped.
GRID toggles the state of the grid to be on or off. The
grid will be drawn to the aspect ration of the
Graphics widget.
CLEAR sets the state of the cells in the automata to 0 and
redraws the graphics. The redrawing part can appear
to be a bit slow when there are a lot of rows and
columns.
FILE.. A menu button whose menus allows file loading and
saving. Currently only files saved by the program can
be loaded. This may change in the near future.
RULES
LIST A scrollable list of current rules. See below for
details of the rules. selecting a rules executes it.
An Abort widget will be brought up on the left edge
of the display.
If the STEP gadget is selected (DOWN) the system will
do one execution of the selected rule before
returning to an idle state.
If the step gadget is de-selected (UP) then the
system will continue to execute the selected rule
until the system reaches a static state or is
interrupted (by selecting the abort widget).
ROWS sets the number of rows in the current automata. Will
reset the contents of the automata. <RETURN> must be
pressed to accept the new number of rows. Currently
the number of rows has been arbitrarily limited to
100.
COLS as above but sets columns.
STATES sets the number allowable number of states the user
can enter. Has no effect on the execution of the
automata. Currently there are a ridiculously high
number of states, but in practice only about 10 will
actually ever be used.
cells with higher states than the value input will be
thresholded to the new maximum state.
RIBBON This gadget can not be directly interacted with. It
just shows the colours associated with the different
states.
EXIT terminates the program.
RULES
The notation used relies upon the neighbours of the current
cell.
+------+--------+------+
| | | |
| NW | North | NE |
| | | |
+------+--------+------+
| | | |
| West | Centre | East |
| | | |
+------+--------+------+
| | | |
| SW | South | SE |
| | | |
+------+--------+------+
The following rules have been implemented in this release of
the simulator.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
ANNEAL
The behaviour of this rule is similar to
thermodynamic annealing.
state |
old new | reason
--------+----------------------------
0 1 | 4,6,7,8,9 active neighbours
1 0 | 0,1,2,3,5 active neighbours
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
BRIANS_BRAIN
state |
old new | reason
--------+------------------------------------
0 1 | exactly 2 neighbours are in state 1
1 2 | always
2 0 | always
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
CODD
+---+
| 1 |
+---+---+---+ +---+
| 0 | 1 | 1 | -> | 0 |
+---+---+---+ +---+
| 0 |
+---+
+---+
| 0 |
+---+---+---+ +---+
| 1 | 0 | 1 | -> | 1 |
+---+---+---+ +---+
| 1 |
+---+
+---+
| 1 |
+---+---+---+ +---+
| 1 | 0 | 1 | -> | 1 |
+---+---+---+ +---+
| 1 |
+---+
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
DIAMONDS
new state = North or East or South or West
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
4 WAY FILL
state |
old new | reason
--------+---------------------------------------------
0 2 | if North, East, South or west are in state 2
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
8 WAY FILL
state |
old new | reason
--------+----------------------------------------
0 2 | if any of the neighbours are in state 2
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
GRAVITY
state |
old new | reason
--------------+------------------------
0 North | always
Centre 0 | if south neighbour is 0
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
GROWTH
state |
old new | reason
--------+---------------------------------
0 1 | if the number of neighbours is 0
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
HGLASS
A random-ish rule which uses this lookup table:
EWSNC C' |EWSNC C' |EWSNC C' |EWSNC C' |
---------+---------+---------+---------+
00000 0 |01000 0 |10000 1 |10000 1 |
00001 1 |01001 1 |10001 1 |10001 0 |
00010 1 |01010 0 |10010 1 |10010 0 |
00011 1 |01011 1 |10011 0 |10011 1 |
00100 1 |01100 1 |10100 0 |10100 0 |
00101 0 |01101 0 |10101 0 |10101 1 |
00110 0 |01110 1 |10110 0 |10110 0 |
00111 0 |01111 1 |10111 0 |10111 1 |
where C' represents the new state of the cell.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
LICHENS
state |
old new | reason
--------+----------------------------------------
0 1 | if the number of neighbours is 3,7 or 8
1 0 | if the number of neighbours is 4
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
LIFE
Conways classic game of life. I'm using state 2 to
show that the cell has survived.
state |
old new | reason
--------+----------------------------------------
0 1 | if the (number of neighbours) is 3
1 2 | if the (number of neighbours) is 2 or 3
C 0 | otherwise
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
MAJORITY
state |
old new | reason
--------+------------------------------------------
0 1 | if the (number of neighbours)+self is > 4
1 0 | if the (number of neighbours)+self is < 5
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
PARITY
new state = North xor East xor South xor West
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
SQUARES
new state = North or NE or East or SE or South or SW
or West or NW
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
TRIANGLES
new state = North or East or West
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
TUBE_WORM
state |
old new | reason
------------|----------------------------------------------
0 ALARM | if a neighbour is in alarm state.
0 ALARM | if the number of active neighbours >threshold
C C-1 | otherwise
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
TUBE_WORM_2
state |
old new | reason
------------|----------------------------------------------
0 ALARM+n | if n neighbours are in alarm state.
0 ALARM | if the number of active neighbours >threshold
C C-1 | otherwise
Of the rules above I think that life, brains brin, lichens
and anneal are the most interesting. Im sure that there are
more rules and If you know of any contact me and Ill put it
in.
BUGS
I expect there are a few lurking bugs in the program. Ive
tried to remove as many as possible and have had little
problems using the software. But then every author says the
same.
Linux users will get seg faults. Although SUIT has been
ported there, Ive had lots of problems and although it
compiles, it seg faults every time when using the GP_ colour
routines.
The system I compiled the software on was a SPARCstation
IPC, running SunOS Release 4.1.1. I compiled using gcc 2.2.2
with SUIT libraries version 2.3.
I've tried as much as possible to use ANSI C, I am unlikely
to be able to solve any compilation problems that you may
have. If you have a problem compiling SUIT then please get
in contact with SUIT support.
Similarly I can't guarantee to fix any bug-reports I might
get. Although as a budding software engineer (so I've been
told) I guess I should make sure my software is as free from
bugs as possible.
TODO
If I had the time I would do the following things:
Allow importing/exporting of cells, into the automata.
Set/clear/move an area of the automata,
Allow user defined automata rules,
Give some online help.
Provide a playback facility.
Provide a "print" facility.
MANIFEST
In addition to this man page,You should have received the
following files in this distribution
src/Imakefile
src/LICENSE
src/abort.c
src/abort.h
src/assorted.c
src/assorted.h
src/auto.c
src/auto.h
src/automata.c
src/automata.h
src/callback.c
src/callback.h
src/colorbar.c
src/colorbar.h
src/files.c
src/files.h
src/main.c
src/main.h
src/methods.c
src/methods.h
src/neighbours.c
src/neighbours.h
src/rules.c
src/rules.h
doc/auto.1
examples/3statecycle.auto
examples/colorful.auto
examples/crash.auto
examples/fred.auto
examples/fred2.auto
examples/glider.auto
examples/life.auto
examples/wierd.auto
examples/brian.auto
examples/brian_arrow.auto
examples/codd.auto
examples/fill.auto
examples/fill2.auto
examples/glider_gun.auto
examples/glider_gun2_brian.auto
examples/glider_gun_brian.auto
examples/gun.auto
examples/spaceship_life.auto
examples/spectrum_loader.auto
These files are archived using tar and compressed using GNU's
gzip. You will need gzip to uncompress the tar file and can
get it from most good ftp sites.
FILE FORMAT
The *.auto files are examples of cellular automata files
that are used by this application. It uses a weird format
that I dreamt up, mainly because I didn't look around for
other suitable file formats.
The first line in the file must start with the string
"Cellular automata file" This is how the program knows that
it has the right type of file
Cellular automata file
The next 3 lines declare the number of rows, columns and
states of the automata.
5 rows
9 columns
3 states
and finally an array of states in rows x cols format.
DISCLAIMER
The software is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program (LICENSE) ; if not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge,
MA 02139, USA.
SUIT
SUIT -- The Simple User Interface Toolkit
SUIT is a library of interface tools developed at the
University of Virginia to help C programmers create
sophisticated mouse based interfaces without the lengthy
learning period associated with traditional user interface
toolkits. Ease of learning and fast ramp up time is central
to SUIT's design.
Also central to SUIT design is portability. SUIT programs
currently run without changes to the source code on the
following platforms:
IBM PC, Macintosh, Sun3, Sun4 (SparcStation),
SGI (Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations), DECstation, HP.
SUIT is available through anonymous ftp from
uvacs.cs.virginia.edu (128.143.8.100). Each SUIT
distribution package comes with full source code and
documentation.
SUIT, including all its source code, is available without
charge to Universities and other non-profit institutions.
For-profit organizations, and people requiring more
information can send email to
suit@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu
SUIT (c) 1990, 1991 , 1992
Copyright Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
automata() MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES automata()
THANKS
Thanks go to the people who created SUIT. Without them I
probably wouldn't have bothered writing this SUIT
application.
Thanks also go to the Joint Network Team at the Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory for teaching me C.
I must thank Laser Scan Ltd, for giving me 2 excellent
placements and giving me a taste of the real world.
How can I not mention the people at Robert Fleming Ltd for
unknowingly starting me out on the computing trail.
If as a result of using this application, you feel that I
have some potential, and you happen to have an opening in
your company. I'll be graduating in BSc Computer Science in
about August 1993 and wouldn't mind getting a job overseas.
THE AUTHOR
My current email address is cs89ssg@uk.ac.brunel. This
certainly will not be the case after July 1993. I am likely
to have an account on at least a public access unix site so
I should be contactable via newsgroups after this date.
