Conway's Game of Life in C++

This repository contains an implementation of Conway's Game of Life, a classic cellular automaton devised by mathematician John Conway. The program is written in C++ and is designed to be efficient, modular, and easy to use.

About Conway's Game of Life

Conway's Game of Life is a zero-player game, meaning its evolution is determined by its initial state and requires no further input. It consists of a grid of cells, each of which can be alive or dead. The state of the grid evolves in steps based on the following rules:

1. Underpopulation: A live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies.
2. Survival: A live cell with two or three live neighbors continues to live.
3. Overpopulation: A live cell with more than three live neighbors dies.
4. Reproduction: A dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell.

This program simulates these rules and displays the evolution of the grid over time.

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Features

• Efficient Implementation: Optimized for performance in C++.
• Customizable Grid Size: Define the size of the grid at runtime.
• Interactive or Preset Patterns: Start with manually defined patterns or use preset ones (e.g., gliders, oscillators).

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

To build and run this project, you need:

• A C++ compiler (e.g., GCC, Clang, MSVC)
• CMake for build automation
• A terminal or console environment

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DavidHavoc/conwaysgameoflifecpp.git
   cd conwaysgameoflifecpp

2. Build the project using CMake:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..
   make

3. Run the executable:

   ./game_of_life

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If you want to enable the documentation generation or testing, you can pass those options when configuring CMake:

cmake -DBUILD_DOCS=ON -DBUILD_TESTS=ON ..

Usage

Once the program is running:

1. You can input the grid size and choose a starting pattern.
2. The simulation will display the grid in the terminal.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you’d like to improve the project, feel free to:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bugfix.
3. Submit a pull request for review.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Acknowledgments

• Inspired by John Conway's original concept of the Game of Life.
• Special thanks to the open-source community for their tools and libraries.

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