CALIFE README file

CALIFE is a DOS-based VGA 1D CA simulator made available by Rudy Rucker.
It is distributed as shareware.  It was written in Fall, 93, by
Rucker with the help of my students in the Dept. of Mathematics & Computer
Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA.
 
The califez.exe file is a self-extracting PKZIPped file; meaning that
you don't need PKUNZIP to extract it.  It contains the main executable,
CALIFE.EXE, a short document CALIFE.HLP listing the controls, a long
document CALIFE.DOC explaining the program, and a number of *.CA1 files
which code up interesting 1D CA rules.  Simply enter CALIFEZ at the DOS
prompt to decompress.
 
To use CALIFE, enter CALIFE at the DOS prompt on a machine equipped with
VGA and (preferably) a mouse.  Press any key to get past the start
screens.  You will see nine 1D CAs being updated.   Use your mouse or your
arrow keys to highlight a CA you like, and then press Enter, which will
make the other 8 CAs become mutations of the CA you like.  Keep doing
this!  If you press the spacebar, some button controls will appear.  Left
or right click your mouse on them to change various paramters.
 
Some features of CALIFE.EXE:  (1) it is fairly fast, (2) it has a
(handrolled DOS) graphical user interface with mouse support,
(3) it allows you to select from a range of combinations of
neighborhood radius and states per cell (any combination for which the
lookup table would not be too big), (4) it allows you to save and load
parameter files of favorite CAs, and (5) KEY FEATURE, it allows you
to play the "Blind Watchmaker" game with 1D CAs, by selecting and
mutating CAs, with up to nine CAs being displayed at once.
(6) It allows you to set the Langton "lambda" parameter of your CAs.
(7) A final feature of CALIFE is that it has automatic checking to kill off
any CA that repeats with a cycle of less than 16 (space and/or time),
and it also can be set to kill off CAs whose entropy is too different from
some specified target entropy.  In this way, one can steer away from
Wolfram class 1 and 2 (by avoiding periodicity) and away from Wolfram
class 3 (by avoiding very high entropy values).
 
Enjoy!