At 23:30 15.03.2002 +0100, Hannes Hirzel wrote:
>What perhaps misled me: The simulations are still rather _slow_.

Well, StarSqueak*Life* is kindof slow, yes.  I gauge AntColony, ForestFire, 
and SlimeMold as exceptionally *snappy*.  IIRC the Java-StarLogo project 
folks *envied* us for the speed we Squeakers got.  All thanks to John Maloney.

There are faster Life implementations than StarSqueakLife out there, first 
and foremost Dan's tricky BitBlt version.  After all, in Conway's game 
definition, there was nothing else to cells than "alive or dead."  You can 
just treat the field as a whole, and flip bits.  Except, StarSqueakLife 
implements the game differently, and more costly:  Each cell has an 
identity as a LifeTurtle object, and decides for itself whether it will 
live on or die.  Autonomously.  Each queries its neighbours, knows its age, 
and changes its color and its very existence accordingly.  The game is 
turned inside-out.  I recommend Resnick's book (Turtles, Termites, and 
Traffic Jams) and the code.

E.g., see LifeTurtle>>live and how LifeTurtles account for the fact that a 
randomly initialized StarSqueakWorld may place multiple turtles on the same 
spot:  They shriek and steam off into random directions, turning "Color 
tan" in the process...

Maybe Bijan and Tansel were right.  I should have found the time to write 
more about it.  Yeah, I know.  But well, you know...

Cheers,
Helge