Why not just subtract in AWK?

diff --git a/life/001/bin/life b/life/001/bin/life
index 993ca12..fdcf765 100755 (executable)
--- a/life/001/bin/life
+++ b/life/001/bin/life
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #! /bin/sh
 
 
-Y=`expr \`stty size | awk '{print $1}'\` - 3`
+Y=`stty size | awk '{print $1 - 3}'`  # Reserve 3 charcters for status bar
 X=`stty size | awk '{print $2}'`
 
 NUM_BEAM_PROCESSES=31