LOGO-L> Xmas - The Gift of Life - Conway's +...

[Bob Gorman <bgorman@kncell.org>]

Gary P. Thompson II's post of the Quine Page, immediately put me into nostalgia mode.

I love old and exotic compilers, interpreters, languages etc.

Stocking Stuffer #1

A file I received a long time ago from a friend contained many versions of Conway's Game of Life, written in a whole host of languages. Since the problem can be described in 3 simple rules and most implimentations are under 2 pages of source code, it's great for showing students, of all ages, how the various computer languages differ, much like dialects of a so-called natural language. I started to analyze them from the point of view of cognitive complexity, but never finished it. The various versions include 2 dialects of BASIC, 2 of C (one with a different representational algorithm), FORTRAN, FORTH (one of my favorities), LISP, PROLOG, and a few editor type languages.... Sorry, no LOGO, yet! Perhaps one of you might want to either hack the LISP version or do one from scratch, over the holidays....

I compressed the files, into a ZIP of 28K. email me if your interested. If enough are, I can either post it or put it on my own webpage http://kncell.org.

Stocking Stuffer #2

A multi precision BASIC -

I do a lot with games, for analyzing cognitive styles, strengths and weaknesses of people etc. One thing that always bugged me, was I wanted to know how many possible games of solitaire could be dealt. Since my first love was Mathematics, I knew the answer was 52! (52 factorial). Having had brief affairs with number theory, cryptoanalysis etc, I've known since I was a teen-ager that the answer was about 68 digits long. 35 Years in the computer industry, while it feds the kids, etc. didn't help, and indeed frustrated me more. Almost every computer language out there cuts out at 10-12 digits and goes to E-notation. But I wanted to know exactly how many hands were possible!

Then I discovered UBASIC, a very small (120K executable!), program that allowed 2400 digit accuracy! It took a 10 line program, to get the answer I wanted (6 lines for the answer, + 4 lines to time it, and count the number of digits in the answers).

For the curious, here it is:

   10   print=print+"deckdat"

   20   print date,time,time1000

   22   clr time

   25   for I=1 to 52

   40   A=!(I)

   50   S=str(A)

   55   L=len(S)

   60   print I;L-1;A

   70   next I

   80   print time1000

1997/ 6/27/ 11:04:51    131:04:51       39896451

  1   1  1

  2   1  2

  3   1  6

  4   2  24

  5   3  120

  6   3  720

  7   4  5040

  8   5  40320

  9   6  362880

10   7  3628800

11   8  39916800

12   9  479001600

13  10  6227020800

14  11  87178291200

15  13  1307674368000

16  14  20922789888000

17  15  355687428096000

18  16  6402373705728000

19  18  121645100408832000

20  19  2432902008176640000

21  20  51090942171709440000

22  22  1124000727777607680000

23  23  25852016738884976640000

24  24  620448401733239439360000

25  26  15511210043330985984000000

26  27  403291461126605635584000000

27  29  10888869450418352160768000000

28  30  304888344611713860501504000000

29  31  8841761993739701954543616000000

30  33  265252859812191058636308480000000

31  34  8222838654177922817725562880000000

32  36  263130836933693530167218012160000000

33  37  8683317618811886495518194401280000000

34  39  295232799039604140847618609643520000000

35  41  10333147966386144929666651337523200000000

36  42  371993326789901217467999448150835200000000

37  44  13763753091226345046315979581580902400000000

38  45  523022617466601111760007224100074291200000000

39  47  20397882081197443358640281739902897356800000000

40  48  815915283247897734345611269596115894272000000000

41  50  33452526613163807108170062053440751665152000000000

42  52  1405006117752879898543142606244511569936384000000000

43  53  60415263063373835637355132068513997507264512000000000

44  55  2658271574788448768043625811014615890319638528000000000

45  57  119622220865480194561963161495657715064383733760000000000

46  58  5502622159812088949850305428800254892961651752960000000000

47  60  258623241511168180642964355153611979969197632389120000000000

48  62  12413915592536072670862289047373375038521486354677760000000000

49  63  608281864034267560872252163321295376887552831379210240000000000

50  65  30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000

51  67  1551118753287382280224243016469303211063259720016986112000000000000

52  68  80658175170943878571660636856403766975289505440883277824000000000000

2651 milliseconds!

Enjoy!

Bob

"To get NEW Answers, you must ask NEW Questions!"
- Bob Gorman