Java question...please help

Anon

Hi,

I am a high school senior and have just started learning how to program (in java) on my own. I want to be able to create a version of Conway's Game of Life but since I stopped short of learning about GUIs in java, I think I would have to create a text-based version...I'm not quite sure how to go about doing so, though, so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas. I know that I will be creating a 2-D array, but my problem is I don't know how to generate a pattern in the array (i've seen the game of life on a grid, which i don't know how to implement as of yet) and I don't know how to create a method of determining how many neighbors each cell has.

(For those unfamiliar with the Game of Life a brief description and an applet with the actual game (I think I would create an application though, not an applet, since I don't know any HTML)is at the site: www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html)
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Anon

Check this out:
http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/GameOfLife.java.
This is an applet, but it gives you basic algorithm, so you can transform it into an application.
You can also try http://cgi.student.nada.kth.se/~d95-aeh/java/Life.java.

In case you're still not happy try searching groups.google.com - it'll give you plenty of links.

I made Game of life in Director (with Lingo as a programming language) once and it was easy. You shouldn't have any problems with Java either.

Good luck 🙂

Anon

Ughhh, what's that thing in my mouth? Oh it's my foot. My most humble apologies to the divine Dina. I was apparently wrong. Hey, first time for everything, right?

So Olga... How about helping me with my perpetual motion machine? Pretty please?

Doh!!
Get Real

Anon

aw thanks so much for your help! Okay so far I've figured out that I need two 2-D arrays..one to hold the current generation and one to hold the next generation (which will later be copied to the current generation and printed)but i dont know if they should be boolean or just character arrays where an empty space is like a "false" and an occupied space (with an "x" or something)..what do you think? Also, what I am still really confused about is how to create a method to check the number of neighbors next to a given cell. I know you would have to use a loop or something to check elements [j+1], [j-1], [i-1][j-1], [i-1][j], [i-1][j+1], [i+1][j-1], [i+1][j], [i+1][j+1], given element [j], but i'm not quite sure how to go about doing so...would you use three loops (keeping either the column or the row constant each time)? Thanks again for all of your help...I really appreciate it,

Anon

haha...its ok