home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- DEMON version 1.1A
-
- (C) Copyright 1989 Judson McCranie. All rights reserved.
-
- Judson S. McCranie
- Software Solutions
- 2406 Orlando Drive
- Valdosta, GA 31602
-
-
- This program is produced by a member of the Association of
- Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the
- shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve
- a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
- member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can
- help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
- does not provide technical support for members' products. Please
- write to the ASP Ombudsman at P. O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006
- or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman
- 70007,3536.
-
- This program is distributed on a "Shareware" (try-before-you-buy)
- basis. You are free to copy it and to distribute copies at cost.
- You may not alter the program (or its documentation) or sell it
- for profit. If you like this program, register them by sending
- your name and address along with the program name and version
- number with a $5 registration and license fee to me at the
- address above. You will receive support for the program,
- announcements of new versions of this program, and information
- about several other programs. Please send any inquires,
- comments, or suggestions to me at the address above. Even if you
- are not a registered user, I would appreciate any comments or
- suggestions.
-
- This programs should run on any IBM-PC/XT/AT/PS-2, or compatible
- system that has any common graphics adapter. A fast CPU and some
- patience are recommended. A color monitor (EGA, VGA, or better)
- is almost essential.
-
-
- THE DEMON PROGRAM
-
- The Computer Recreations (by A. K. Dewdney) column in the August
- 1989 issue of Scientific American (page 102-105) described a
- cellular automata that generates crystal-like growth from
- randomness. The cellular automata can have any number of states,
- but the article recommends 12 to 16. Each cell in the board is
- colored according to its state.
-
- The cells are initially assigned states randomly. Thereafter, at
- each generation a cell is converted to the next higher state
- (color) if any of its orthogonal neighbors is in that next higher
- state. (The states are cyclic.)
-
- The board usually goes through four phases:
- Debris - random spots of color
- Droplet - regions of color form
- Defect - spirals of color form
- Demon - spirals take over the whole board.
-
- With a small number of states (say 8 or fewer), long spirals
- don't seem to develop. When the number of states is large (say
- 20) one color may take over the entire board. With more states
- (say 25) the board will most likely become locked almost
- immediately.
-
- The program defaults to 12 states, but you can choose the number
- of states (2 through 32). You can also alter the size of the
- board (up to 240 by 256), but 200 by 200 cells is the default.
- The left-hand side of the board is connected to the right-hand
- side and the top of the board is connected to the bottom.
-
- The running time (for a given state) is proportional to the area
- of the board, thus a 100 by 100 board will run 4 times as fast as
- a 200 by 200 board. The running time depends on the number of
- states. Generally the larger the number of states the longer it
- takes to reach the demon phase. The 14-state case takes about
- 50% longer than the 12-state case, for example. The default
- configuration (12 states, 200 by 200 board) reaches the demon
- phase in about 160 generations. This takes about 4 minutes on a
- 20 MHz 386, about 12 minutes on an AT-class machine, or about an
- hour on a PC.
-
- Press <ESC> to stop the program. It will stop when it has
- finished an even number of generations. You can stop it by
- pressing <CTRL-BREAK>, but it will leave your screen in graphics
- mode.
-
- This program was developed using Turbo Pascal 5.5 from Borland
- International. The Turbo Professional 5.0 package from Turbo
- Power Software provided useful data entry routines. The files
- with BGI extensions are graphics drivers for virtually all
- graphics adapters. They are proprietary to Borland International
- and are distributed with permission.
-
-
- OTHER PROGRAMS
-
- Other programs by this author:
-
- Shareware programs:
-
- Checkers - Plays the game of Checkers
- Connect4 - Plays the game of Connect 4
- Master - Plays either side of the game of Mastermind
- Fox - Plays the game of Fox and Geese
- HyperQub - Rotates a 4-dimensional hypercube
- Demon - Cellular automata that generates crystal-like growth
- Chaos - Graphs several types of "Chaos":
- Lorenz Butterfly
- Logistic Equation
- Henon maps
- Three-body problem
- Triangle pattern
-
-
- Educationally oriented programs:
-
- Factor - Quickly finds the prime factors of an integer < 2^32
- MagicSq - Generates magic squares up to 175 x 175
-
-
- Forthcoming:
-
- SlideSho - Make text slide show in various fonts, sizes, & colors
- Life - Conway's "Game of Life" - a computer simulation
- Orbits - Graphs 2- and 3-body orbits
- Reversi - Plays the game of Reversi (a.k.a. Othello)
- Squares - Plays the game of Dots and Squares