README.md

   1 life-001
   2 ========
   3
   4
   5 Approach
   6 --------
   7 The grid is represented as flat list of sequential ID's, where neighbors are
   8 calculated using the offset relative to the desired length of the printed
   9 X-axis. See my prototyping doodles at the bottom.
  10
  11 Each cell is represented as a gen_server process named after its corresponding
  12 ID on the grid and holding the names of its neighbors in its state record.
  13
  14 Likewise, time is represented as a gen_server process which sends ticks to all
  15 cells and collects state responses, then proceeds to sort and print the
  16 resulting board - this constitutes one generation.
  17
  18 Upon receipt of a tick, a cell broadcasts its state to its neighbors, then
  19 proceeds to collect counterpart broadcasts from its neighbors. Upon collection
  20 of all broadcasts - it calculates its new state and sends it to the time
  21 process.
  22
  23 Additionally, there's, a non-essential, observer process, whose job is to
  24 simply log the statistics for each run of the simulation.
  25
  26
  27 Usage
  28 -----
  29 * Get: `git clone git://github.com/ibnfirnas/life.git`
  30 * Enter: `cd life/001`
  31 * Build: `make`
  32 * Run: `./bin/life`
  33
  34
  35 Doodles
  36 -------
  37 ![Doodles](https://raw.github.com/ibnfirnas/cellular-automata/master/life/001/doodles.jpg)