Conway's Game of Life

A fast, interactive terminal-based implementation of Conway's Game of Life written in Zig.

Features

• Interactive Terminal Display: Real-time visualization with ANSI colors and smooth animations
• Configurable Parameters: Customize grid size, generation count, and animation speed
• Multiple Input Methods: Command-line arguments, configuration file, or interactive prompts
• Toroidal Topology: Grid edges wrap around for seamless cellular automaton behavior
• Efficient Implementation: Double-buffered rendering with optimized memory management

Quick Start

# Clone and build
git clone <repository-url>
cd cgol
zig build

# Run with default settings
zig build run

# Run with custom parameters
zig build run -- --height 30 --width 50 --generations 100 --delay 150

Installation

Prerequisites

• Zig 0.11.0 or later

Building from Source

# Debug build (default)
zig build

# Release build
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe

# Install to zig-out/bin/
zig build install

Running Tests

zig build test

Usage

Command Line Options

The application supports multiple ways to configure the simulation:

Named Arguments

cgol --height 40 --width 60 --generations 100 --delay 80
cgol --height=40 --width=60 --generations=100 --delay=80

Positional Arguments

cgol 40 60 100 80    # rows cols generations delay_ms

Interactive Mode

cgol --prompt-for-config    # Force prompts even if config exists
cgol -p                          # Short form

Configuration File

Create a cgol.toml file in the working directory:

# Game of Life configuration
rows = 40
cols = 60
generations = 0    # 0 = infinite
delay_ms = 100

Parameters

• --height <rows>: Grid height (default: 25)
• --width <cols>: Grid width (default: 80)
• --generations <n>: Number of generations to simulate (0 = infinite, default: 0)
• --delay <ms>: Delay between generations in milliseconds (default: 100)
• --prompt-for-config: Force interactive config prompts
• --help: Show help message

Controls

• The simulation runs automatically once started
• Use Ctrl+C to exit
• Grid automatically adjusts to fit your terminal size

Architecture

The project is organized into focused modules:

• main.zig: Application entry point and main game loop
• game.zig: Conway's Game of Life rules and grid operations
• config.zig: Configuration file parsing and management
• cli.zig: Command-line argument processing
• renderer.zig: Terminal rendering and ANSI escape sequences
• input.zig: User input handling for prompts
• constants.zig: Application constants and defaults

Development

Code Style

• Follow Zig conventions: UpperCamelCase for types, lowerCamelCase for functions/variables
• Use explicit types (u8, usize) and prefer const over var
• Format code with zig fmt . before committing
• Keep functions focused and separate I/O from pure logic

Testing

• Add unit tests using inline test blocks
• Run tests locally with zig build test
• Focus tests on pure functions and edge cases

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes following the code style guidelines
4. Add tests for new functionality
5. Run zig fmt . and zig build test
6. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Conway's Game of Life was devised by mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.