Thanks are due to everyone who posted insightful comments and criticism, and to all the people that linked me to interesting things like this. To the hundreds of you that have contacted me via email, if I haven't gotten back to you yet I will soon. Here's the future of jecology, mostly inspired by you guys, in a nutshell:
Immediate future (next few weeks): DOS/Windows version; A linux screensaver; A GUI interface; A universe editor; A java port written by a third party that can run from the web
Not so immediate future: A Gnorba component that will reside at the heart of all new functionality; networking interfaces to connect universes; A variety of OpenGL overlays that make it more interesting to watch
So I checked that out and it looks very interesting. Unfortunately, I can't really tell what's going on. I'm gonna look at your code, and see what I think. I like your gui interface, and the fact that you used perl.
I dunno. I'm the only person I know that's written one. I used to write things like that in high school and college, but they all sucked compared to this one. Here's what I got out of this post: many comments about the code, offers to help me improve it, some interesting links to similar kinds of things (usually things I didn't know about), and some compliments. Even if these types of comments were critical, they provided useful insights and interesting links. Comments that fell in to the above category made me very happy. Anyway, if you wrote a superior simulator in high school or college or even after that, please link me to it.;)
That's a pretty neat website. I've always found COnway's Life kinda static and boring, that's all. To be honest I got interested in it again tonight because I found out you can implement a Turing machine inside of it. But anyway, this is a 0-player game in which cells attempt to emulate life. So that's at least two things it has in common. There's actually many others. I have implemented Conway's Game of Life in the past and feel like I understand it pretty well. My comparison of this program to CGoL was suggested to me by Slashdot staff. TO be honest I was just looing for comments about the simulation itself, or the code (which isn't so great yet). I am looking for comments and criticism about the program. I regret comparisons I've made, and mentioning wolfram's book. That seems to get a lot of you sidetracked.
I'll put up the DJGPP tomorrow, probably. I am playing with it right now. Thanks again for the tip. I have no way to get in touch with you outside of slashdot. Feel free to drop me an email if you want.
You should be able to use atof instead, I think. And I will now use DJGPP to make a native windows version, thanks to your tips.:) I began to use Microsoft Visual Studio the night before last to build a console application, which would require a full rewrite of all the console display functions. Your way sounds easier.;) And yes, you've disabled the "t" option. The t option is fun because you can set it to a very low value and the universe runs by very fast. I will attempt to use atof or something else and get back to you.
Re:Bad boy! Use sleep(3) or select(2) or usleep(3)
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Hmm works fine.:)
Re:Bad boy! Use sleep(3) or select(2) or usleep(3)
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Hmm seems to work fine now. Just went to a windows machine and tested it. Thanks.
Re:Bad boy! Use sleep(3) or select(2) or usleep(3)
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Does cygwin support sleep or usleep? That actually originally what I had I think but it wouldn't work on cygwin.
Re:Bad boy! Use sleep(3) or select(2) or usleep(3)
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Done. Join the sourceforge project.:)
Re:A's or B's should eat "dead" everthing elses
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You mean when things starve they should leave a corpse that can be eaten by a scavenger, I assume. That is a really interesting idea.
And what the hell is this guy talking about? Try modeling that rand() function.:) In fact, come up with a system of linear or non-linear analysis for this system. Or better yet, just run the program and watch the little things gather food until they starve or are eaten.;) I hate the superior attitude people take, especially when it seems they barely know what they are trying to tell us. The program is EYE CANDY! You're supposed to enjoy it. It doesn't solve any real world problems whatsoever.
Most of the life simulators I've played with (gLife comes immediately to mind) turn me off with their complexity. I was actually aiming for something almost as simple as Conway's game. The code really isn't very large. And to be honest, everyone I have shown it to in person has wound up zoning out for hours and watching it, while I try to move on to different things. They begin talking about "Cancers of D's defended by G's" while the other people around them just stare at them blankly. I really would like help on it, and I'm definitely going to port it to Open GL.
I actually thought it could make a good Linux screensaver, as is, or even with different bitmaps or animations to represent each creature. And it is just eye-candy.:)
I hope you know that I'm currently getting geared up to spend endless hours with xlife (again), when I should be doing more productive stuff. Thanks alot, buddy.;)
Well, no then, this isn't Turing complete. I actually call rand() to determine where each new creature spawns and how many will spawn and whether there are mutations. That precludes Turing-completeness.
I'm not sure what you mean by Turing-complete in this context. You need a Turing-complete language to implement the ruleset, I think. It deviates pretty far from Conway's original ruleset. The rules are still fairly simple, and are described pretty well on the rules page .
It's just eye candy. Some people tend to watch it for hours. The rules are essentially the same for each creature (except for what they eat), actually, but there's theoretically no limit to how high they could evolve. All that stops them are the constraints of a food chain. I have a genetic version, where each creature's knowledge of how to move towards food, mutate, etc is genetc. However, the system eventually starts looking exactly the same as the one you're looking at, so I left that stuff out. I'm not claiming it's revolutionary. I was personally astonished at the formation of the hierarchies, which I had not forseen happening in such a fashion. What I do like is the simplicity of the code. I want people to hack it up, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks are due to everyone who posted insightful comments and criticism, and to all the people that linked me to interesting things like this. To the hundreds of you that have contacted me via email, if I haven't gotten back to you yet I will soon. Here's the future of jecology, mostly inspired by you guys, in a nutshell:
Immediate future (next few weeks): DOS/Windows version; A linux screensaver; A GUI interface; A universe editor; A java port written by a third party that can run from the web
Not so immediate future:
A Gnorba component that will reside at the heart of all new functionality; networking interfaces to connect universes; A variety of OpenGL overlays that make it more interesting to watch
So I checked that out and it looks very interesting. Unfortunately, I can't really tell what's going on. I'm gonna look at your code, and see what I think. I like your gui interface, and the fact that you used perl.
Yes, I like wireworld. :)
I dunno. I'm the only person I know that's written one. I used to write things like that in high school and college, but they all sucked compared to this one. Here's what I got out of this post: many comments about the code, offers to help me improve it, some interesting links to similar kinds of things (usually things I didn't know about), and some compliments. Even if these types of comments were critical, they provided useful insights and interesting links. Comments that fell in to the above category made me very happy. Anyway, if you wrote a superior simulator in high school or college or even after that, please link me to it. ;)
I seem to be able to create a spinner in xlife just fine. (???)
That's a pretty neat website. I've always found COnway's Life kinda static and boring, that's all. To be honest I got interested in it again tonight because I found out you can implement a Turing machine inside of it. But anyway, this is a 0-player game in which cells attempt to emulate life. So that's at least two things it has in common. There's actually many others. I have implemented Conway's Game of Life in the past and feel like I understand it pretty well. My comparison of this program to CGoL was suggested to me by Slashdot staff. TO be honest I was just looing for comments about the simulation itself, or the code (which isn't so great yet). I am looking for comments and criticism about the program. I regret comparisons I've made, and mentioning wolfram's book. That seems to get a lot of you sidetracked.
I'll put up the DJGPP tomorrow, probably. I am playing with it right now. Thanks again for the tip. I have no way to get in touch with you outside of slashdot. Feel free to drop me an email if you want.
You should be able to use atof instead, I think. And I will now use DJGPP to make a native windows version, thanks to your tips. :) I began to use Microsoft Visual Studio the night before last to build a console application, which would require a full rewrite of all the console display functions. Your way sounds easier. ;) And yes, you've disabled the "t" option. The t option is fun because you can set it to a very low value and the universe runs by very fast. I will attempt to use atof or something else and get back to you.
Hmm works fine. :)
Hmm seems to work fine now. Just went to a windows machine and tested it. Thanks.
Does cygwin support sleep or usleep? That actually originally what I had I think but it wouldn't work on cygwin.
Done. Join the sourceforge project. :)
You mean when things starve they should leave a corpse that can be eaten by a scavenger, I assume. That is a really interesting idea.
And what the hell is this guy talking about? Try modeling that rand() function. :) In fact, come up with a system of linear or non-linear analysis for this system. Or better yet, just run the program and watch the little things gather food until they starve or are eaten. ;) I hate the superior attitude people take, especially when it seems they barely know what they are trying to tell us. The program is EYE CANDY! You're supposed to enjoy it. It doesn't solve any real world problems whatsoever.
Oh yeah, and I'm not sure anyone has ever made a system with rules identical to this one's. If you are aware of such a system, please inform me.
Most of the life simulators I've played with (gLife comes immediately to mind) turn me off with their complexity. I was actually aiming for something almost as simple as Conway's game. The code really isn't very large. And to be honest, everyone I have shown it to in person has wound up zoning out for hours and watching it, while I try to move on to different things. They begin talking about "Cancers of D's defended by G's" while the other people around them just stare at them blankly. I really would like help on it, and I'm definitely going to port it to Open GL.
I actually thought it could make a good Linux screensaver, as is, or even with different bitmaps or animations to represent each creature. And it is just eye-candy. :)
I hope you know that I'm currently getting geared up to spend endless hours with xlife (again), when I should be doing more productive stuff. Thanks alot, buddy. ;)
That website is really cool. I've never seen it before. That is truly awesome.
Well, no then, this isn't Turing complete. I actually call rand() to determine where each new creature spawns and how many will spawn and whether there are mutations. That precludes Turing-completeness.
I'm not sure what you mean by Turing-complete in this context. You need a Turing-complete language to implement the ruleset, I think. It deviates pretty far from Conway's original ruleset. The rules are still fairly simple, and are described pretty well on the rules page .
It's just eye candy. Some people tend to watch it for hours. The rules are essentially the same for each creature (except for what they eat), actually, but there's theoretically no limit to how high they could evolve. All that stops them are the constraints of a food chain. I have a genetic version, where each creature's knowledge of how to move towards food, mutate, etc is genetc. However, the system eventually starts looking exactly the same as the one you're looking at, so I left that stuff out. I'm not claiming it's revolutionary. I was personally astonished at the formation of the hierarchies, which I had not forseen happening in such a fashion. What I do like is the simplicity of the code. I want people to hack it up, etc.
Will do. ;) I've always run it on a black terminal. Nice to know it works on OSX as well.
I don't really care about Wolfram's book. I read it all, and feel much the same way about it that you do. Did you try my program? :)
Thank you very much. :) Everyone that has seen them agrees.