[cellular-automata.git] / README.md

life-005
========


Approach
--------
AWK's array is not a first class value - it cannot be copied and passed around.
One of approaches to work around this issue (the other I tried in life-004) is
using a single array with a new element for each generation (so that we can
refer to the previous while building new). Problem is that there are no
multidimensional arrays either...  However, facilities are provided for
simulating them by storing level dimension information in the key of the
associative array, so I ended up with board[generation, x, y] and manually
deleting a generation when it is no longer needed.
Commit	Line	Data
	1	life-005
	2	========
	3
	4
	5	Approach
	6	--------
	7	AWK's array is not a first class value - it cannot be copied and passed around.
	8	One of approaches to work around this issue (the other I tried in life-004) is
	9	using a single array with a new element for each generation (so that we can
	10	refer to the previous while building new). Problem is that there are no
	11	multidimensional arrays either... However, facilities are provided for
	12	simulating them by storing level dimension information in the key of the
	13	associative array, so I ended up with board[generation, x, y] and manually
	14	deleting a generation when it is no longer needed.