Hexagonal (2,1) automata

There are certain sublattices of the general square lattice which can be provided for with a special editor of their own, to conceal the full generality which would only distract the user. The hexagonal lattice is one of them, the square lattice of radius 1/2 is another.

 
Figure: Hexagonal (2,1) menu  

As with automata operating with full neighborhoods, it is convenient to introduce the degrees of totalistic, semitotalistic, symmetric, and so on.

The menus for all these options are very similar, as are the screen layouts, as illustrated in Figure .

The options are typical, namely:

• - 0, 1 define state
• MOA - toggle state
• SPACE, MOR - advance cursor
• BACK, MOL - cursor backward
• INSERT - load rule into CAM

• ERASE - clear CAM bitplanes
• s - single step of evolution
• S - generations of evolution
• t - graph mean-field probability
• u - graph Bernstein monomial
• x - choose a random rule
• y - random ellipse
• Y - random full plane
• z - clear graph area
• ! - function key menu
• ? - show keyboard menu

The probability panel shows the percent of live cells in each generation, supposing that a compatible color scheme has been chosen for the CAM ; if the results appear unreasonable, try adjusting the colors to activate the event counter correctly.

The graph panel shows the mean field theory curve for the rule; since the diagonal is also displayed, the fixed points and their stability can be determined visually, to be compared with the density bar chart in the probability panel.