'Game' of Life

Life requires a browser with JavaScript support; it has been tested with

Macintosh OS X: Safari 2.0; Firefox [no?: 1.0.4]; Internet Explorer 5.2.3;
Macintosh OS 9: Netscape 4.7, 4.5, 4.0.8, 3.0.4 [no: 2.0]; Internet Explorer 5.0, 4.5;
Windows: Internet Explorer 6.0, 5.0, 4.0 [no: 3.0] Firefox 1.0.4; Netscape 7.2, 4.0.8 , 3.0 [no: 6.0]; Opera 8.0

Let me know about your experience with other browsers. If Images are not loaded automatically, you'll have to Load/Show Images manually after (re)loading page

What is Life? | Using Life | Examples | Versions | Distribution

What is Life?

Life is a mathematical simulation (game) described by John Conway in Scientific American in Oct. 1970.

Several rules are used to create a next generation from a cell's 8 neighbors:

0|0|0
0|?|0
0|0|0

Survival: a cell with 2 or 3 neighbors survives
Death: a cell with 1 or less, or 4 or more neighbors, dies
Birth: an empty cell with exactly 3 neighbors will be born

Using Life

Pat:: pattern to add
Clear: clear all cells, reset Gen counter
Next: evolve a single generation
Gen: Generation counter
Repeat/Stop: evolve until all cells are empty or static, or you tap Stop or Clear
click in a cell: add current pattern (Pat); if dot, toggles the cell. Note: if this doesn't work in older browsers, use the following controls:
Add: add the current pattern (incl. dot) at current X,Y location. Note: 0,0 is left,upper corner
L-: move one cell left; if Pat is dot and Auto Dot is on, automatically add dot there
X:: current X(column) location. Enter a number between 0-29
R+: move one cell right (see L)
U-: move one cell up (see L)
Y:: current Y(row) location. Enter a number between 0-29
D+: move one cell down (see L)
Auto Dot?: if on and Pat is dot, automatically add dot with L/R/U/D buttons

Note: grid area is currently 30x30 (adding more rows is easy; more columns would be more work). Larger patterns run more slowly in general; they also refresh more slowly in NN.

If clicking in grid area does not add pattern in older browsers, these commands allow you to add cells:

Examples

...to try (some in pattern picker):

blinker: flips

OOO

glider: down&left 1 in 4 steps

 O
O
OOO

block: stable

OO
OO

beehive: stable

 OO
O  O
 OO

5 long: turns into "traffic lights" (4 blinkers) in 9 steps

OOOOO

7 long: "honey farm" (4 beehives)

OOOOOOO

9 long: double traffic lights

OOOOOOOOO

a pattern/link page

Versions

Last updated: 21 Jun 2005: updated syntax via JSLint and tested with newer browsers

Steve's Other JavaScript apps
Yahoo Other Versions

Distribution

This version is free, and can be downloaded locally and mirrored in its entirety. If you copy/modify/improve the code, I would appreciate an acknowledgment of this version and link to this page.