Python interface for Game of Life

Python wrapper for C implementation of Conway's Game of Life algorithm.

This only provides low-level utilities. It is intended to be used as a dependency for higher-level pure Python packages; as of this update, they are:

Installation

Use PyPi package conway-life

python3 -m pip install --upgrade conway-life

Design notes

None of the methods allocate any Python objects; output objects must be created by caller. This both simplifies memory management and makes it possible to avoid unneeded garbage collection for large objects.

API

run(width, height, n_threads, n_iters, pos_start, pos_end, calllback)

width: Width of the board; integer
height: Height of the board; integer
n_threads: Number of worker threads (not yet supported); integer
n_iters: Number of iterations to run; integer
pos_start: Initial position; boolean list of size width x height
pos_end: (Output) Final position; boolean list of size width x height. Must be pre-allocated.
callback: Iteration calllback, or None (see below)

return value: number of actually executed iterations (never more than n_iters, but could be less, see below)

callback(n_iter, count, bhash, pos_ptr, fin)

n_iter: current iteration (see below); integer
count: count of cells; integer
bhash: hash of current position; integer
pos_ptr: internal memory pointer to the current position; integer. Method read_ptr can be used to extract the position
fin: 1 if this is final iteration, 0 if not

return value: None or integer; value 1 will trigger iterations to stop immediately.

Notes

1. callback (if defined) is called before first iteration, and then again after every iterations, including the last (where fin=1). Therefore, normally callback method is called 1 + n_iters times.

2. However this method also detects loops and if your sequence deteriorates to a loop, it will cut it short; fin would still be set to 1 on the last iteration only regardless. Hash values used in loop detection is passed to the callback.

read_ptr(width, height, pos_ptr, position)

width: Width of the board; integer
height: Height of the board; integer
pos_ptr: Internal memory pointer returned in a callback (see method run); integer
position: (Output) Intermediary position; boolean list of size width x height. Must be pre-allocated.

return value: 1 on success