Conway's Game Of Life

• I first came across this game when I had discovered Python and Pygame. I had just started programming, and wanted to see if I could implement it.
• Of course, I failed hilariously, but it was quite the thought experiement!
• A few days ago, a peer of mine, Luke implemented their own in Golang using the terminal, I thought I'd have a go at it.

Tools

• I just happened to be working with SDL2 for 2D game development so that was no question.
• I had also recently discovered Flecs and was considering as an option for a game I've thought of.

Build Process

• This was my first time using a framework for C++ ( as opposed to a library ), so linking everything together was quite a pain.
  • Luckily, I have the internet on my side. I saw suggestions to use CMake or Make or Bake and all of these toolsets. Personally, this is a learning experience, so I sought to learn more about the compiler instead of letting a program do it for me.
  • This is a 3-step build process. Hopefully I've made it simple.
    • TODO: write python script to generate .bat for this.
• Build Object file for main.cpp
  • I'm not going to put SDL2 in this repo since it's been distributed to so many systems.
    • There is quite a thorough wiki on installing SDL2 as well as several videos covering the installation process.
  • gcc -c .\src\main.cpp -o .\bin\main.o -I${SDL2 include directory} -I\.include
    • Since the -c flag removes the linker step, it doesn't matter if you use g++ or gcc compiler.
    • The SDL2 include directory should hold a folder named SDL2 which contains all of the header files.
• Build Object file for flecs.c
  • gcc -c .\include\flecs.c -o .\bin\flecs.o
    • Using the Flecs Quickstart page as a reference...
    • Make sure to use either "gcc / clang instead of g++ / clang++" since this a .c file.
    • If you're on Windows and not using Visual Studio (I'm in VSCode):
      • "make sure to add -lWs2_32 to the end(!) of the linker command".
      • In this case: gcc -c .\include\flecs.c -o .\bin\flecs.o -lWs2_32
• Link main.o against flecs.o and dynamically link SDL2
  • g++ .\bin\main.o .\bin\flecs.o -o \bin\main -L${SDL2 core library} -lSDL2main -lSDL2 -lWs2_32
    • The SDL2 core library should hold the binaries necessary for linking such as, libSDL2.a, libSDL2.dll.a, libSDL2.lla, libSDL2main.a, and libSDL2main.la.
• If you check the contents of .\bin\, you should see flecs.o, main.o, SDL2.dll, and main.exe.

Demo

• Initial board state: Gosper glider gun