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posted by janrinok on Friday December 24 2021, @01:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the fun-for-the-holler-daze dept.

Lisp in Conway's Game of Life

Lisp in Life is a Lisp interpreter implemented in Conway's Game of Life.

[...] The Lisp interpreter, written in C, is compiled to an assembly language for a CPU architecture implemented in the Game of Life, which is a modification of the computer used in the Quest For Tetris (QFT) project. The compilation is done using an extended version of ELVM (the Esoteric Language Virtual Machine). The Game of Life backend for ELVM was implemented by myself.

Generating a short enough Lisp interpreter assembly code and a Game of Life pattern that runs in a reasonable amount of time required a lot of effort.

Having an infinite size Game of Life grid [...] reduces the chances that any pattern will wrap around to the other side of the grid.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday December 24 2021, @02:53AM (5 children)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Friday December 24 2021, @02:53AM (#1207521) Journal

    There is nothing wrong with nerds on this. Languages are just a compression method for encoding ideas for transfer.

    Even hypnosis, TV advertising, praying, octopus mating rituals, wildlife birds warbling or Chinese classical theater performance do have some syntax.
    Without proper prior discriminative knowledge the meaning cannot be conveyed.

    It's problem of non-nerds they can't understand the meaning of [life|Life]. Or Forth. Or TeX. Or cats talk.
    Without relevant execution model, any code is just a pile of symbols.

    The real meaning of a program is its execution.

    --
    Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=1, Informative=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @03:04AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @03:04AM (#1207522)

    You are a prime example of inarticulate nerds.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @03:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @03:07AM (#1207525)

      I had no problem understanding this comment from Mojibake Tengu (8598)'s.

      I do have problems with some of his more detailed comments, not surprising if English isn't his first language(?)

  • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by JoeMerchant on Friday December 24 2021, @03:59AM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday December 24 2021, @03:59AM (#1207538)

    Sure, cats talk, but do we really care what they are saying? Is there any nuance in the language that's not already communicated in their body language?

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @11:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @11:55PM (#1207707)

      The talk is almost entirely for non-feline benefit anyway.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @04:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @04:04AM (#1207540)

    I understood execution. You need someone executed? I'll have someone on that immediately. - Ivan Bakanov