Game of Life Go

Overview

The Game of Life Go is a Go implementation of Conway's Game of Life, a cellular automaton devised by mathematician John Conway. This implementation includes a server that handles HTTP requests to initialize and run the game, utilizing various Go packages for functionality.

Repository Structure

• cmd/server/main.go: The entry point for the server application.
• board: Contains logic and data structures for the game board.
• runner: Handles the execution of the game logic.
• www: Static files served by the server.
• bitmap-go: A dependency that helps with bitmap operations.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.19 or later

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Eyal-Shalev/game-of-life-go.git
cd game-of-life-go

2. Install dependencies:

go mod tidy

Running the Server

To start the server, run:

go run cmd/server/main.go

The server listens on http://localhost:7676 by default.

API Endpoints

/api/v1/game

Handles starting a new game with optional parameters:

• rows: Number of rows for the game board.
• init_state: Initial state of the board in a specific format.
• seed: Seed for random number generation.

/

Serves static files from the www directory.

Code Structure

main.go

The main file initializes the server, sets up routes, and starts listening for HTTP requests.

Key functions include:

• main(): Sets up the server and routes.
• gameHandler(): Handles game initialization and streaming game state updates.
• parseInitFunc(): Parses initialization parameters from the request.
• parseSeed(): Parses or generates a seed for random number generation.
• doIgnore(): Helper function to ignore errors from function calls.

Board Initialization

The game board can be initialized in two ways:

1. Randomly, using a seed for reproducibility.
2. From a specified initial state.

Game Runner

The game logic is managed by the runner package, which handles the game's execution and state updates.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature-branch).
3. Make your changes.
4. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature').
5. Push to the branch (git push origin feature-branch).
6. Open a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Contact

For questions or support, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.