Description

Readings
Review OOP notes and readings; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_game_of_life .
What to hand in
Please print out ONLY the Board class from your code (ie from class Board through def animate). Be sure to write your name and section clearly at the top of your code!
0. Preliminaries
To begin, please visit the course webpage and download the code template to the same directory where you have saved the file graphics.py. All the places where you will need to add code have a comment ‘‘YOURCODEHERE’’. At the end of the project, you should have code in all the places where you find this comment. Note we have coded the Block and Board classes such that you don’t have to think in pixels. The Block init method takes care of sizing the block to the pixels specified in the global variable BLOCK SIZE and placing it on the grid. Thus, you only need to think of the board as a grid of size BOARD WIDTH by BOARD HEIGHT. Remember that square (0,0) will be in the top left corner, with square (10,10) in the bottom right.
Read through the provided code, and understand the above paragraph, before progressing any further! Whenever you get template code, it is essential you read through it before coding that way, you understand what is going on, and what classes and methods are available to you. Ask an LA if you don’t’ understand aspects of the code.
1. A block for each square
In the init method of the Board class, you need to finish laying out the board. Currently, only the board is drawn. We wish to make a Block to each square on the board, and store that Block in a dictionary (self.block list). Remember from Exercise 4.3 that Blocks can be any color listed in rgb.txt! Read the comments in the code and think about the best way to do this. Note that you just want to create the Block; you do not want to set it to live! Also, be sure to delete the raise Exception line.
Before continuing, test if your implementation works. Find the section RUNNING THE SIMULATION, and make sure the code underneath PART 1 is uncommented. Run the code, and if everything works, the board should pop up with random squares colored in.
2. Adding specific tiles
Now we wish to be able to seed the board with specific patterns of tiles. It’s your job to implement the seed method of the Board class, which takes in a Python list of block coordinate tuples something like [(x1, y1), (x2, y2)] ­ and sets the Blocks in those positions to be live. If you get stuck, review the implementation of random seed to see how we can get the blocks to be visible on the board; however, you should not use the same for loop that random seed uses ­ hint: your loop should involve the parameter block coords…
Before continuing, test if your implementation works. Comment the random seed method and uncomment the code underneath PART 2. If everything works, one phase of the Toad pattern (found on the Wikipedia page) should appear.
3. Finding our neighbors!
For part 4, you’ll need a way of figuring out the neighboring Blocks bfor any given Block. You’ll need to implement the method get block neighbors in the Board class. This method takes in a Block object, and should return a Python list of neighboring blocks. Neighbors can be horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent ­ so a block in the center of the board would have 8 neighbors, while one in a corner would only have 3. There are many ways of approaching this problem, so take a few minutes to devise a good algorithm, and then try to implement it.
Comment the code under PART 2 and uncomment the two lines under PART 3. If everything works, squares at positions (0,0) and (1,1) should appear colored in, and your Python interpreter should print “Passed neighbor test”.
4. Adding the rules
Now it is time to actually code in the rules of the Game, within the simulate method. Note the rules are as follows:
1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under­population.
2. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
3. Any live cell with exactly two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
Comment the code under PART 3 and uncomment the two lines under PART 4. If everything works, the Toad pattern should appear, and two seconds later, it should shift phase. MAKE SURE THIS WORKS BEFORE CONTINUING!
5. Running the animation!
Congrats, you’re seconds away from being done! Comment out the line that says win.after(2000, board.simulate), and uncomment the code underneath PART 5. Now, run your code. Your simulation should animate as expected! Try seeding the board with some of the different blocklists in the GLOBAL VARIABLES section, try randomly seeding the board, and try making up your own blocklists! Let us know if you find anything cool.
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6.189 A Gentle Introduction to Programming
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