CS 112b
Spring 2004
Ileana Streinu

Homework 2

Thursday February 5, 2002
Due Wednesday 2/11/2000 by midnight.

Outline

Your task is to write in C++ a program for the game of Life. The program should be named life.cpp. All the functions and the main program should be in this file, you shouldn't use other files. You will submit in Hw2 two files, life.cpp and a typescript named typeLife.

Program

The game of Life, and a structured approach for writing a program for it, is contained in the handout distributed in class on Th., Jan. 31. The description in the handout is both in pseudo-code and C. Using it to guide your thinking, you will have to develop a full C++ program. You should generously use functions, as suggested by the approach in the handout. You should use the work you did in this week's labs, lecture 3 and lecture 4 and build upon them (i.e. you could and should use some of the functions developed during the labs, for the homework).

Input/Output format and Testing

To enter a Life configuration, use x's for live cells and dots '.' for dead cells. Finish a line with a sharp sign # and the whole configuration with an equal sign =. For example, this data set corresponds to the first example in your handout.

To simplify the testing, I have prepared a larger set of data files containing the data sets in Fig. 1.1 of the handout. You can copy them directly from the web:

Open the data file in Netscape
From the File menu, choose Save As.
Save on the Desktop or on the network of your computer (if you are in Windows), then transfer the files (using ssh) to your 112b-xx account; or, if you are under Linux, save directly in the appropriate directory (e.g. Hw2) in your class account.

Your program should read the input from user input, but for testing you can pipe in any of these data files.

When testing your program, you can use the Game of Life applet to check the accuracy of the obtained configuration after each generation. However, be careful: the data sets I have given you are on a small grid. I expect your program to check when it reaches the boundary of the grid.

When preparing the typescript, make sure these tests show up in the given order (i.e. data01, data02, etc.).

Ileana Streinu