Exercise 7.4: Conway's Game of Life

     if three or fewer neighbor cells are alive, then cell dies;
     if five or more neighbors cells are alive then cell dies;
     if four neighbor cells are alive, then increment current cell value;

%==========================================================================

define main

% John Conways Game of Life. Values of the Board cells are 0, for dead
% cells, or positive integers for live cells.
% Each cell has 8 neighbors; boundaries always contain dead cells.
% On each iteration, the cells are updated as follows:
%  -- If a cell has more than four live neighbors, then it should die.
%  -- If a cell has fewer than four live neighbors, then it should die.
%  -- If a cell has exactly four live neighbors, then 
%        if it is deal, then it should be born;
%        if is alive, then it should stay alive.
%  -- If a cell stays alive in a step, its value incremented by one.
% The simulation of life iterates "Iterations" times.
% The board rows are all indexed from 1 to N, and the columns are all
% indexed from 1 to M; M and N may not be equal.

type OneDim = array [ integer ];
type TwoDim = array [ OneDim ];
type ThreeDim = array [ TwoDim ];

%==========================================================================

function decide( B : TwoDim; I : integer; J : integer returns integer )
% This function decides which cells should live or die.

  %----------------------------------------------------------
  function test( B : TwoDim; p, q : integer returns integer )
     % This embedded function deterimines if a given cell is
     % currently alive; it returns numeric values, 1 for alive
     % and 0 for dead, so its results can be added by its
     % caller to similar results for other cells.

     if B[p, q] > 0 then 1 else 0 end if
  end function % test
  %----------------------------------------------------------

  % count the neighbors of cell [I,J]
  let Neighbor_count := test(B,I-1,J-1) + test(B,I-1,J) + test(B,I-1,J+1) +
                        test(B,I,  J-1) +                 test(B,I,  J+1) +
                        test(B,I+1,J-1) + test(B,I+1,J) + test(B,I+1,J+1)

  % change its state, if necessary
  in  if     ( Neighbor_count >= 5 ) then 0
      elseif ( Neighbor_count  = 4 ) then B[i,j] + 1
      elseif ( Neighbor_count <= 3 ) then 0
      end if 
  end let
end function % decide

%==========================================================================

function evolve( B : TwoDim returns TwoDim )
  let
    Num_Rows  := array_size(B);
    Num_Cols  := array_size(B[1]);
    First_row := B[1];
    Last_row  := B[Num_Rows];

    Core      := % evolve the central portion of B
                 for I in 2, Num_Rows-1
                    Mid_row  := % evolve the central portion of row I
                                for J in 2, Num_Cols-1
                                returns array of decide(B,I,J)
                 returns array of Mid_row
                 end for;
             
    Long_Core := % add the left and right boundaries to each core row
                 for m in 2, Num_Rows-1
                    Long_Row := array_addl( Mid_row, 0 );
                 returns array of array_addh( Long_Row, 0 )
                 end for

  in  % add the top and bottom boundary rows to the long core
      array_addl(array_addh(Core,Last_row),First_row)
  end let
end function % evolve

%==========================================================================

function main( Iterations : integer; Board : TwoDim returns Three_Dim )

   for initial
      Count := Iterations;
      B := Board;
   while ( Count > 0 ) repeat
      Count := old Count - 1;
      B := evolve( old B ); 
   returns array of B
   end for

end function % main

%==========================================================================

The Sisal Language Project has been approved as a Designated Unclassified Subject Area (DUSA) K19222, as of 07 August, 1991.

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