cgl%cardinal@lanl.gov (Chris Langton) (12/20/88)
The Cellsim_1.0 Cellular Automaton Simulator for *COLOR* Sun workstations
is available again via "anonymous ftp" from 128.165.96.120. (access
details follow).
Our new and improved ftp utility is up and running so the "anonymous"
facility has been re-enabled. Apologies to those who tried to access the
simulator while anonymous was disabled.
For those who didn't see the original announcement, this is a window-based
tool for experimenting with simple 1D and 2D cellular automata. It
represents a compromise between speed and general-utility. It won't be
perfect for everyone, but we tried to include enough features to make it
useful for basic CA research. It allows interactive editing of arrays and
transition rules, image manipulation, real-time data-collection and
analysis via the socket mechanism, a simple rule derivation mode, and
"reasonable" run-speeds (up to 80 generations/sec for a 64x64 array on a
Sun-4 - about 40/sec on a Sun-3).
Here is a sample script for obtaining the simulator via ftp:
(If you don't have access to ftp or the ARPANET, see below)
____________________
raven[3]ftp 128.165.96.120
Connected to 128.165.96.120.
220 cardinal FTP server (Version 4.118 Thu Dec 31 21:21:26 MST 1987) ready.
Name (128.165.96.120:user-name): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
Password: <TYPE SEVERAL RANDOM CHARACTERS HERE - NOT JUST RETURN!>
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> cd pub
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get cellsim_1.0.tar
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening data connection for cellsim_1.0.tar (128.165.96.124,1786) (1916928 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
local: cellsim_1.0.tar remote: cellsim_1.0.tar
1916928 bytes received in 17 seconds (1.1e+02 Kbytes/s)
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
____________________
Try to do this in the wee hours of the morning, or on a weekend when the
net traffic is low, as it is a rather large file (you shouldn't expect the
transfer rate acheived above - these machines sit next to each other!)
Once you have obtained the tar file, untar it in a directory of its own,
and read the "README" and "cell.doc" files.
____________________
For those in the USA without ftp access, send a tape (reel or 1/4"
cassette) to me at the address listed below (specify BPI for reel tapes).
For those in Europe, Tom Buckley at Leeds University has agreed to serve
as the European distribution point:
Dr. T.F. Buckley
Department of Computer Studies
Leeds University
Leeds, LS2 9JT
England, UK
email:
buckley%uk.ac.leeds.dcs@UKACRL
In Japan, Nobuyasu Osato is the person to contact:
Nobuyasu Osato
Room 5-112A
Software Engineering Laboratory
NTT Software Laboratories
9-11 Midori-Cho 3-Chome
Musashino-Shi, Tokyo 180
Japan
Phone: 0422-59-3668
Facsimile: 0422-59-4369
Email: osato%ntt-20.ntt.jp@relay.cs.net (from ARPA)
____________________
Anybody who obtains the simulator should send me an email message at the
address listed below to inform me that you obtained it. This is primarily
so that we can keep you informed of updates, new versions, bug-fixes,
availability of a data-base of rules, and so forth. I can't tell how
people will come to learn about the simulator and so announcements in
comp.sys.sun, sun-spots, and the CA mail list may not reach everybody.
Note: This is an early release - there are still some bugs in the system,
the documentation is not perfect, and there are several obviously useful
features that haven't been implemented yet. We are including the source
code so that people may hack in features that they may need. However,
PLEASE DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE HACKED VERSIONS! We will gladly include useful
improvements/comments/suggestions in further releases with full credit to
the authors, but in order to maintain coherence and consistency in the
architecture, please mail source for fixes and improvements to us. We
will recode them into the simulator in such a way that they will be
consistent with other changes and/or new architectural features.
We hope that people WILL try to make improvements - this is largely why we
are making the source code available. Some useful improvements would be:
a B&W version, a speed-up of the display of magnified arrays, a
laser-writer dump of the array contents, a hexagonal neighborhood version
(preferably displaying hex-tiles in a speedy way).
Most common misunderstanding: In order to run a specific rule, you must
not only specify the neighborhood template on the command line when
invoking the simulator (e.g. "cell m4" - which initializes a CA that will
use the Moore neighborhood with 4 states/cell) but you must load a
specific rule (e.g. "life.m4") using the "trans" button on the control
panel. If you don't specify a neighborhood template, the default is the
von Neumann (5-cell) neighborhood using 8-states/cell. If you don't
specify a transition rule, all neighborhoods are "undefined".
Please address all comments, complaints, queries, problems, etc to:
Chris Langton
Center for Nonlinear Studies Phone: 505-665-0059
MS B258 Email: cgl@LANL.GOV
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, New Mexico
87545