Conway's Game of Life

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Installation

Prerequisites: Python 3.10 or newer.

1. Clone the repository and navigate into ConwaysGameOfLife

git clone https://github.com/Marcelfrueh/ConwaysGameOfLife.git

cd ConwaysGameOfLife

2. Create a virtual environment

Mac/Linux:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Windows:

python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install project & dependencies

pip install -e ".[dev]"

4. Run the game

game-of-life

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Game Modes

When starting the application, you will be asked how you want to initialize your board. You have three modes available:

1. Coordinates
You set the size of the board and input the exact positions of the living cells.

Format: Row,Column (separated by a space).
Example: 1,2 2,2 3,2 (Creates a blinker).

2. Custom Patterns (Load from file)
You can place your own patterns as text files into the custom_patterns/ folder.

Use 0 for dead cells and 1 for living cells.

For example, create a file glider.txt with the following content:

010
001
111

Save this file into the directory /src/custom_patterns. Then, simply type the file name (e.g., glider.txt) in the startup menu.

3. Random Pattern

Just enter the desired width and height of the board. The algorithm will then randomly fill the grid with living and dead cells.

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Testing

The project includes a test suite that ensures the core rules of Conway's Game of Life (underpopulation, survival, boundaries, etc.) as well as file parsing work correctly.

To run the tests, simply type:

pytest

or

pytest -v