LCA.C

The disk LCA.C was released in the summer of 1987, 9 programs written in ``C'' for calculating and displaying the evolution of linear cellular automata. Both source code and a separate disk of EXE files are provided. Although the programs represented a point in the evolution of the course Fortran III offered regularly during several preceding semesters at the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and were promoted at the XVI Feria de Puebla, they had their principal inspiration in an article in the December, 1986, issue of Byte magazine which explained how cellular automata could lead to intricate and complicated designs, with a certain aesthetic appeal.

Kenneth E. Perry,
Abstract Mathematical art,
Byte, December 1986, pages 181-192

The programs in the LCAKR.C set ran through the k-range of 2, 3, and 4 states per cell, as well as interactions between first, second, or third neighbors (the r-range). The combinations and are surely the most colorful, but the binary first neighbor version is more amenable to an exhaustive analysis.

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Harold V. McIntosh
E-mail:mcintosh@servidor.unam.mx