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Game of Life in Postscript
smashr writes "It never really occured to me that postscript could be used for something other than printing, until I came across this page. Evidently someone has written the classic 'Game of life' entirely in postscript. You can even send it to the printer and have it output every single iteration.. now that would be a fun prank."
I find it impressive that a technology that's been around since 1985 is not only still usable, but it's used almost everywhere for printing and is also an extremely powerful language. If only more technology was created this way these days. Definitely a testament to the people who created postscript...
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
In some contexts, the size of the file sent
to the printer is an important consideration.
Coding a page as the shortest computer
program that can generate the page is "the
best you can do". Of course, whether or not
dvips is generating the optimal program is
another issue entirely.
Well, imagine the waste of paper it would do if it *did* print every interaction.
It's not a bug it's a feature!
I think it's just the nature of slashdot. Anything that might be of use to regular people is immediately maligned (and this includes companies trying to...GASP...make money by providing information), and anything that's completely useless gets praised.
Conway's Game of Life is also turing complete; therefore, you can regard this PostScript hack as proof that PostScript is turing complete as well, since you could implement a turing machine on top of Life, on top of PostScript..... :)
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
do you know anyone who has "finished" Tetris? Yet it is still a game.
...is anyone concerned about the image of the tech community and finding more realistic ways to demonstrate the creativity and resourcefulness of nerds?
I once spent a day with a guitarist of immense talent. He spent countless hours with his instrument, but not making music...it was all just pointless scales, arpeggios, chord progressions around the cycle of fifths...not one bit of actual music did he perform. Sure, it was amazing to watch, but I couldn't understand why he was wasting his immense muscial intellect with such mundane exercises.
I wonder where he got the talent. Must have been a gift from god. It surely couldn't be that tireless practice of one's art leads to mastery, and that anything that helps one make practice fun aids in one's journey towards eminence in one's field...nope, no way.
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
That's your opinion of it. Any new programming language looks "incomprehensible" once you begin to learn it, and once you've got the hang of the nuances of the language it becomes clearer.
Calling PostScript "primitive" is a joke as well. Learn about the language. Read the PS Language Reference. Look at some of its more complex features.