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changeme.txt

Already, note a complication: New elements in the list must be introduced if the pattern grows over a block's boundaries, but we have to know if the block's neighbor already exists. You can either do a simple linear search of the list, or binary search, or keep some kind of map. I chose to make a hash table. This is solely used for finding the neighbors of a new block; each existing block already keeps a pointer to its neighbors, as they will be referenced often.There must also be an efficient algorithm within the blocks. I chose to primarily blaze straight thru each block. There are no inner loops until all cells in a block are processed. Also, fast-lookup tables are employed. I look up 4x4 blocks to determine the inner 2x2.Note: CA programs typically consist of 2 main loops (plus a display loop), because CA rules operate on the cells in parallel, while the microprocessor is conceptually serial. This means that there must be two copies of the universe, effectively, so that no important info is destroyed in the process of creating the next generation. Often these 2 copies are not symmetrical. It was a great struggle for me, since almost every time I took something out of one loop to make it faster, I had to add something else to the other loop! Almost every time, that is; the exceptions to that rule lead to the best optimizations. In particular, there are good tradeoffs to be considered in bit-manipulations: shifting, masking, recombining to form an address in the lookup table....It can also be considered that sometimes the contents of a block may stabilize, requiring no further processing. You could take the block out of the list, putting it in a "hibernation" state, only to be re-activated if a neighboring block has some activity spilling into it. These blocks would take zero processing time, just like a blank region of the universe