Greetings

Welcome! Thank you for considering the README file.

Contents

1. What is the sca-toolsuite?
2. Why using the sca-toolsuite?
3. Getting it
4. Thanks to
5. Links
6. Contact
7. Enclosed files

1 What is the sca-toolsuite?

The name sca-toolsuite stands for sca cellular automata toolsuite. Most of its tools can operate on every cellular automaton (CA) which is

1. synchronous or purely asynchronous and
2. uses a finite, two-dimensional grid

This toolsuite provides you with a number of tools to

• create, read or write grids
• exporting them to TGA, latex and ODS format
• do math with them like in C++
• do simulations
• do very fast routines, especially for sandpile CA

Most of the tools can be combined using UNIX pipes (see examples in point 5).

2 Why using the sca-toolsuite?

Reasons for using it include the following.

• The sca-toolsuite can simulate CA of many different types with both high flexibility and high efficiency. One example of flexibility is the piping mechanism:

  core/create 20 20 4 |
  ca/ca 'v+(-4*(v>=4))+(a[-1,0]>=4)+(a[0,-1]>=4)+(a[1,0]>=4)+(a[0,1]>=4)'

• For sandpiles, we provide the (probably) worlds fastest algorithm. Our computation time was 37 per cent of the fastest algorithm we knew of before. For details, see 7 Enclosed files.
• A GUI. It works for all CA.
• Bug safety is important: Algorithms are kept simple and are being tested automatically.
• A large documentation: doxygen and --help for all C++ programs.
• Besides cellular automata, there are many more applications of this toolsuite:
  • rotor-routing (as described by Priezzhev et al, 1996)
  • image manipulation, e.g. with filters
  • calculating maths
  • running two-dimensional games easily (in progress)
  • spreadsheet (future feature)
  • ...

3 Getting it

There are (at least) two branches of sca-toolsuite: stable and master. If you're a user who needs a stable version, use the stable branch:

git clone -b stable [email protected]:JohannesLorenz/sca-toolsuite.git #ssh
git clone -b stable https://github.com/JohannesLorenz/sca-toolsuite.git #https

However, if you're a developer who would like to be up to date and can risk unstable versions, use the master branch:

git clone [email protected]:JohannesLorenz/sca-toolsuite.git

Now, you can proceed with the installation.

4 Thanks to

In alphabetical order, the author thanks:

• All people who give support for bost::spirit [3].
• Oliver Schneider.
• Philipp Lorenz.
• Sebastian Frehmel, his diploma thesis at [2].
• Dr Thomas Worsch [1] @ The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

5 Links

Links from this document:

1. http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/~thw/
2. http://www.sebastianfrehmel.de/studium/diplomarbeit/
3. http://boost-spirit.com/home/feedback-and-support/

6 Contact

Feel free to give feedback. My e-mail address is shown if you execute this in a shell:

printf "\x6a\x6f\x68\x61\x6e\x6e\x65\x73\x40\x6c\x6f\
\x72\x65\x6e\x7a\x2d\x68\x6f\x2e\x6d\x65\x0a"

7 Enclosed files

The following files provide more information:

• BENCHMARKS
• DOCUMENTATION
• EXAMPLES
• FAQ
• INSTALL
• KNOWLEDGE
• NEWS
• LICENSE