B U G S (Carnivorous Mutating Tribbles From Hell) Version 2.0 31 Jul 89 Alpha Chi Rho Prog

B U G S (Carnivorous Mutating Tribbles From Hell) Version 2.0 31 Jul 89 Alpha Chi Rho Programming Cooperative 1621 Tibbits Avenue Troy, NY 12180 Software and Documentation Copyrights: Version 0.8 - Copyright (C) 1989, Peter Oehler for ACRPC Version 2.0 - Copyright (C) 1989, Shannon Posniewski for ACRPC OVERVIEW Bugs is an interactive graphic simulation of Darwinian evolution; specifically through survival of the fittest. This program is based on an idea presented in the May 1989 issue of Scientific American in an article titled "Simulated Evolution: wherein bugs learn to hunt bacteria", by A. K. Dewdney. For bio majors: In our scenario, the environment is a pond and living in the pond are protozoa. The protozoa (usually called bugs) are block shaped critters moving about the screen. Their purpose is simple: to exist and to reproduce. They are out in search of food, bacteria, in the form of blue dots scattered about the screen. Reproduction is carried out in a somewhat strange fashion. The process might be termed mutational mitosis, since two individuals are produced from a single parent, where one is identical to the mother and the other is similar, but differs slightly in its genetic makeup. For Trekkies: In our scenario, the environment is the grain storage area on Starbase 5. Living in this grain storage bin, much to Captain Kirk's chagrin, are tribbles. For our purposes, they are block shaped critters of various color wandering around the screen. Their purpose is three-fold: to exist, reproduce, and make a science fiction television series. To do this, they are in search of food, in particular quadro-triticale. The super-grain has been dyed blue for ease of identification and is scattered about the screen randomly. As Dr. McCoy noticed, reproduction is by "mutational mitosis or somethin'" in these fuzzy creatures. As Spock cogently explained later, two individual entities are produced from one. The first is identical to the mother, whereas the second is slightly different genetically. As an aside, this is one reason we subtitled our program Carnivorous Mutating Tribbles from Hell. Although tribbles are not insects, they are referred to as "bugs" from here on. 1 THE BIRTH OF BUGS The Programmers: This "project" (some call it a fiasco) was started by Pete "the Feet" Oehler when he decided that it was about time to see if the stuff they publish in Scientific American was worth its salt. Shannon "Poz" Posniewski happened upon the room as Pete was finishing the basic program and, with the help of Dan "Frodo" Wiesen, Iwan "Spokes" Axt, and Scott "Monkeyboy" Macneil came up with and coded a veritable plethora of enhancements. (Cotton candy, some called it.) Since it was a little too early to head down to their favorite downtown watering hole, Holmes and Watson Ltd. (simply "H&W's" to aficionados) they hammered out over 500 lines of not so spiffy code. (It did spiffy things, but it wasn't pretty.) Over the next couple days, the menus and "zoom" code was hammered out by Poz, Pete, and Frodo. This 800+ lines of much sweeter code is what was released as Version 0.8. Some thought this was to be the end of the story. Much to their surprise (and disgust), Poz took the QuickBASIC program, casually threw away the reams of code and began work on a Turbo C version. The reason for the change in language (besides the obvious) was for an increase in speed. If you have a pre-2.0 version and compare it to this one you know what I mean. In any case, enough cotton candy was added to make even the most iron-stomached 12 year old sick and is now presented to you as Version 2.0. (Version 1.0 was a short-lived Turbo C cut.) Pete, Poz, Frodo, Spokes, and Scott are all members of the Delta Phi Chapter of the Alpha Chi Rho Fraternity at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. The original version (0.8) was written, unsurprisingly, during the two weeks prior to Finals week, Spring 1989. The Turbo C version (2.0) was worked on from the week after Finals until mid-June 1989. The Program: The original program represented over 100 man-hours of coding. It was programmed in Microsoft QuickBASIC. "For God's sake, why?" you ask. Well, it seems that BASIC was the only language that we all knew fairly well (read: lowest common denominator.) The original version was written and run on a DTK 286/10 AT compatible running at 10 MHz with a Fountain EGA card and a NEC Multisync II monitor. The Turbo C version (2.0) represents well over 400 man-hours of coding. It takes full advantage of the Borland Graphic Interface routines, which should allow the program to be run on any graphics card supported by Borland's BGI. It was written on a Standard (yes, that's a brand name) 286 AT compatible running at 8 MHz with a Standard EGA card and a Samsung EGA monitor. It was tested on a 386 machine running at 16MHz with a Paradise VGA card. It is reeeaaally fast on the 386. The documentation was written using Enable, by The Software Group. 2 And Now, the Inevitable: The authors would appreciate a donation of $15.00 so that they can pay for more beer to program with. Make it payable to Pete Oehler and send it to: AXP Programming Cooperative Attn: Pete Oehler 1621 Tibbits Avenue Troy, NY 12180 With your magical donation, you will receive, free of charge, an upgrade to the next version of BUGS, in-depth documentation, the QuickBASIC source code, the Turbo C source code, the knowledge that you have made an ethically correct decision, and last (but not least) a registration number to disable the annoying reminder. If you can't afford the $15.00 then either send us a six-pack of Dos Equis, a job offer, or whatever other money you have in your wallet. You are free to send us anything else you like. Depending on how much we like what you send us, you may get the services mentioned above (but don't count on it). By the way, this program is yours only on an "as-is" basis. There are NO warranties. That means: 1. If it doesn't work, tough. 2. If you lose money because of this program, tough. 3. If you have any other damages (including, but not limited to, brain damage, loss of eyesight, marital difficulties, catastrophic motherboard failure, etc.) because of this program, tough. 4. If you don't like any of the above, tough. 5. Have a nice day. But you should know this, since every piece of software you own has this same statement on it. (Usually in some 3 point typeface and filled with words seemingly CAPITALIZED randomly, ranting about LIMITED warranties and that you LOSE if ANYTHING goes wrong. Some SOFTWARE companies EVEN charge for BACKUPS, which can only be made by when AUTHORIZED by AUTHORIZED PEOPLE (like SANTA CLAUS and the TOOTH FAIRY). In ANY case, BELIEVE me that all those AGREEMENTS add up to the above, except that they may have a 90 DAY WARRANTY on the DISKS.) 3 THE PROGRAM SPECIFICS The bugs are very active during each cycle. They decide which direction to move, move that direction, expend one unit of energy and age by one unit. In addition to these mundane activities, several conditions are checked. Chow time: If the bug has come upon a bacterium (food, quadro-triticale.), it is consumed and the bug gains the associated energy times an efficiency factor that decreases with age. Just like taxes or pushing up the daisies: If the bug's energy has fallen to zero the bug dies of starvation. If the option for death by old age has been enabled, the bug's age is checked against five times its spawning age. If the bug is older, the bug dies and its body provides fertilizer for the bacteria. Like crazed weasels: If a bug is mature (i.e., old enough to spawn) and has enough energy to spawn, it will produce an offspring. One of the offspring's movement genes may be altered (hence Carnivorous MUTATING Tribbles From Hell) and up to two other genes may be modified slightly. (Incidentally, the QuickBASIC version is limited to 100 simultaneous bugs, if there are currently 100 survivors no spawning will occur until a bug dies. This problem was remedied in the Turbo C version (2.0) where the number of bugs is determined by the amount of free memory.) Pigging out: If a bug has eaten so much that its energy exceeds its obesity factor, it explodes and provides more nutrients for the bugs. Dog eat dog: If a bug runs into another bug, a check is made to see if at least one of them is in the predator phase. If this is the case, then a conflict results. The victor is determined by which one has the higher score as calculated by the formula age^2 * energy. If the victor is a predator, it consumes the loser (hence CARNIVOROUS Mutating Tribbles From Hell) and gains the associated energy. If the victor is not a predator, it leaves the carcass for bacteria to grow on. 4 GENE INFORMATION Each bug has several attributes associated with it, that, in total, constitute a unique individual. These characteristics are stored in its genes. The genes are what determine how the bug is affected by the environment. Motion: The first six genes affect the bug's tendency to move in a particular direction relative to its current position. Imagine that there is a bug sitting on the documentation below. Before you squash it, note that there are six directions which it can move. Forward (G1) | (G6) Left | Right (G2) \ / \ * / >-+-< Don't even THINK >-+-< about laughing / >-+-< \ at the picture! / \ (G5) Hard Left | Hard Right (G3) | Backward (G4) Each bug has a different propensity for moving in each of these directions. This is represented by giving each direction a "weighting", which corresponds to how often the bug will move that direction. The higher the gene value, the higher the probability the bug will move in the associated direction. The probability (P) the bug will move forward, is calculated (obviously?) as follows: P=(2^G1)/(2^G1+2^G2+2^G3+2^G4+2^G5+2^G6). (Which, through an unusual programming slight of hand, is completely calculated as an integer.) Terrible Teens: The bugs pass through a stage of development where they will attack and eat other bugs. The onset of this stage is determined by a gene referred to as Young Predator age and terminated at the value of Old Predator. A bug in this stage is still capable of eating the vegetable matter on the screen. (Perhaps Young Omnivore might have been more accurate.) Puberty: Spawn Age is the age (in cycles) at which a bug reaches maturity and may reproduce. It may seem desirable to put this very low so as to get lots of generations in a short time. However, keep in mind three things: (1) If they reproduce too quickly, natural selection may not take effect; (2) they have no energy stored in case food levels drop and (3) with Death by Old Age enabled they will die at five times their Spawn Age. 5 Strength: Spawn Energy is the minimum energy the bug needs to have in order to reproduce. If a bug is of spawn age and its energy exceeds this value, it will divide. This will effectively divide the bug's energy by two, so a low spawn energy could be dangerous during times of drought or famine. Cellulite: Obesity is the maximum amount of energy a bug may metabolize before it explodes in a shower of protoplasm. The original reason for this gene was to keep bug energies from exceeding the variable size we were using (the classic 32767 limit). The idea grew on us, however, and we therefore kept it in the new version. Besides, Frodo whined and argued arduously to keep his explosion routine, of which he is quite fond. (Little did he know that it was scrapped in the Turbo C version due to lack of time (and want) to implement.) We've got Big Bugs: There is also an option for bug Size. This value is the number of pixels to the side of a bug. (Normally, the size is three.) Being big has the advantage of being able to pick up more food in each step. (There was a planned tradeoff between size, metabolism rate, and speed, but it hasn't been worked in... yet.) The biggest problem with using the size gene is that is slows down the program LOTS. (See The Flags Menu). 6 PROGRAM OPERATION The program opens with a title screen (DA NA! ... Drink!). If you wish, you can just watch the bugs on this screen to get a feel for how they move around, and so forth. When you press a key the actual program will begin. In a hurry? If you want to see how it works NOW, read on. After pressing any key, select the Options menu, then select Fill Screen. Type a small number like 5. After the screen fills, choose Add Random. Type how many "families" you'd like to start with. 5 is pretty good. Now, press the mouse's right button (or ) once. At this point, you can examine a particular bug by moving the pointer to it and hitting the mouse's left button ( or ). Press the right button (or ) to exit this examination screen. Press the right button (or ) again to set the bugs moving. Of Mice and BUGS: Bugs is mouse driven (Microsoft compatible). Be sure the mouse driver is installed, either in CONFIG.SYS or as some program run before Bugs. It has been tested with a number of mice, including Logitech, Microsoft, and Genius brands. If there is no mouse present, Bugs will emulate one for you. The cursor keypad will be taken over by the KeyMouse routines. The arrows move the cursor in the specified direction, and the diagonal keys (Home, End, etc.) move diagonally. The amount the cursor moves at each keypress can be changed using the "+" and "-" keys (usually found conveniently on the keypad). The "+" increases step size whereas the "-" decreases step size. When the cursor is active, the (or ) key (also on most keypads) is mapped to the left button, the right button being the key. Throughout the program, the left button chooses an option or is used to point something out. The right button serves as an "Escape" or "Back up" function, allowing you to back out of a menu or option. Soup du Jour: The program is menu driven, meaning that the vast majority of options are available through the menu. To access the menu while bugs are roaming around the screen, press and hold the mouse's left button until the stop moving (or press once) and the top line is replaced by the menu. 7 To choose an option, move the cursor to the text of the option and click the left button (or ). The execution of the menus and the options therein should be fairly intuitive. Additionally, typing the capital letter found in the option will choose that option. If you are several levels deep in menus and wish to back out, click the right button (or hit ). Each click will back out one menu. A toggle option is On when the circle before it is filled. Other (Hidden) functions: There are several keys defined at all times: F1 - Toggles between the Trace/Graph screen and the Main screen. F2 - Toggles the "Zooming" boxes when an event occurs. F3 - Toggles "Flicker" mode. This mode automatically switches between the Trace and Main screens. When less than 10 bugs are on the screen, this gives a nice effect. S - Saves your Flag changes in a Configuration File. (BUGS.CFG) This file is automatically searched for and read when the program is run. 8 A MENU OF MENUS The Main Menu: This is the menu across the top of the screen. If you are at the main menu and click the right button, the bugs will become active again. Clicking on any of the options will bring up the corresponding menu. When the main menu is active (and no others) you can examine a bug by moving the cursor to it and clicking. (See The Doctor's Office). The Action Menu: This menu has no real point as of yet. Your options are: Stop - Stop the passage of time. Go - Start the passage of time. Quit - Quit the program. You might be asking yourself, "But the bugs stop when the menu is active anyway. What's the point?" The point, Virginia, is that I would like (at some time in the infinitely far-off future, in a land where humankind's quest for the meaning of life has just been completed because we have finally... oops, got sidetracked. Sorry.) to modify the program to allow the cursor to move around while the program is running. (Like a Mac). (The mind boggles...) If you choose Stop and exit from the main menu, you'll notice that the bugs don't move. The function works, but there's no point to it (yet). Quit is identical to the Quit on the main menu. The Flags Menu: This menu allows you to configure Bugs the way you like it. Your options are: Death by Old Age - Shut this off for immortal bugs. Non-Predators - Shut this off if a non-predator can collect the energy of a predator that it killed. Size - Turn this on if you want size to be an active gene. Obesity - Turn this off if you like big bugs. Predator - If this is off, there is no predator phase. Spawning - If this is off, all bugs have the same spawn age (1500) and spawn energy (1000). Debug - This will put leftover debug code into the program. USE AT OWN RISK. 9 Graphing active - When this function is active, the spawn age and spawn energy is graphed on the alternate screen. The bug's family color is plotted at each vertex. Spawn age is in red, Spawn energy in yellow. Also, it will ask for a file name when activated. If entered, this file will hold the gene data for each bug born. (See Appendix A). If this option is off, the trace screen can be activated. The Options Menu: The bugs' lives are controlled through this menu. Your options: add and Modify - This option will create a bug with random attributes, but will automatically "throw-up" the examine screen so you can change its attributes to your liking. Add random - This option will create a specified number of bugs with random positions and gene values. Kill bug - If you don't like a particular bug, you can zorch the little guy. Destroy all bugs - If something is wrong with a particular batch of bugs, you can dispose of all of them. Sort of like nuking the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. food Value - This option changes the amount of energy a bug receives when it picks up a piece of food. Refresh Rate - This option controls how many cycles the program should wait before putting a new piece of food on the screen. Fill screen - The APPROXIMATE percentage of food (with relation to empty space) is controlled here. Some notes and ideas on food: Pretty good values (found via painstaking and extensive statistical analyses done on R.P.I.'s mainframe using the time honored method of trial and error) for refresh rate, food value, and screen percentages are (respectively) every 5 cycles, 20 units per piece, and 5 percent. If these values are too high, the bugs will spawn out of control, filling the screen with hundreds of bugs, and slowing the computer to a crawl. Like goldfish, do not overfeed. Some notes and ideas about "Cities": I have been able to get over 7000 bugs to live on my screen at once. On the 286, it took 18 minutes to do a cycle. If each bug starts with a minimum of 80 units of energy, about 1 day will elapse before the first possible death, in which most kick off due to starvation. Boring. (But still a heck of a lot more fun than say, watching an LPGA tournament on TV. No letters for that comment, please.) 10 Once you get more than a couple hundred on the screen, it slows down a lot and doesn't really have any redeeming factor unless you want to see if they build a thriving metropolis. (They won't.) Also, I wouldn't suggest adding over 7000 bugs (on a 640K machine with no TSRs) since it seems that a nasty (programming) bug is creeping around when more than a certain amount of RAM is allocated. You are free to try it if you like rebooting after a 20 minute period of watching colored specks appear on the screen. Try turning on debug mode before adding lots of bugs randomly. The Display Menu: This menu controls the Trace screen, the Graph screen, and the color of the bugs. Color by Generation - Initially, the bugs are assigned a color according to their "family". (i.e. All bugs that are related are the same color.) When this option is turned on, the bugs are colored by generation. (i.e. All bugs that are in the same generation are the same color.) Trace/Graph Options - Calls up the Trace or Graph menu. Garden of Eden - Calls up the Garden of Eden menu. Notes on Colors: The colors (for the sake of programming convenience) are as follows: color gen color gen Black 0 - DkGray 8 7 Blue 1 - LtBlue 9 8 Green 2 1 LtGreen 10 9 Cyan 3 2 LtCyan 11 10 Red 4 3 LtRed 12 11 Magenta 5 4 LtMagenta 13 12 Brown 6 5 Yellow 14 13 LtGray 7 6 White 15 14 Black (0) and Blue (1) are reserved for the background and the food. Here's how to use the list: If the bugs are colored by generation, and you see this healthy looking brown bug scurrying around, you can say he is from the 5th generation. "Aha," you say, "but what about generations (and families) over 14?" Well, since the EGA only has these colors, I had to wrap them around. Technically, brown could be generations 5, 19, 33, etc. If you have a VGA, these colors may go higher (I dunno). On a CGA, definitely lower. 11 The screen is used as a storage device, so this program mandates the use of a graphics card which supports color. Your monitor can be black and white, but the card must support color. Sorry Hercules and compatibles. Also, I wouldn't suggest using a CGA graphics card. The Trace/Graph Menu: These menus actually are the same functionally, but the text is different. They control the second page, where the trace and graph screens are kept. Your options: Trace (Graph) screen active - When this option is shut off, the trace or graph screen isn't updated, speeding execution time slightly. Clear Trace (Graph) screen - This erases the trace or graph screen so that you can start with a fresh slate. It's good after the trace screen has been active for a while and has filled with a lot of garbage. Notes on Trace and Graph: Trace originated accidentally when the program had a bug and didn't erase the previous bug position. What we found was that the way the bug moves (its style, if you will) was much easier to see graphically than looking at its movement genes. The most efficient and hence longest living bugs are those that cover the most area with the least waste. (This, however, is NOT true when the playing field is not more-or-less uniformly distributed. i.e. a couple thousand cycles into the simulation. (Why?)) In the same vein, the graphing option was added so that genes that are difficult to perceive over time can easily be watched. Additionally, the logging option (which is activated when a filename is entered when graphing is originally turned on) allows a separate program to examine the data after the run. I have had limited success using Reflex (also by Borland) examining this data. A separate program could easily be written to do all sorts of neato things to the gene information. The Garden of Eden Menu: The Garden of Eden is an optional area of the environment, where the food refresh rate may be very much different. You can define where and how much food to add. The options are: Set garden boundaries - After selecting this option, you must specify where the Garden will be, either by clicking the mouse and dragging, or by indicating two corners with the arrow keys and . 12 Refresh Rate X at Y - The "X at Y" stands for X pieces of food every Y cycles. This allows you to add a lot more than one piece of food a cycle (the limit for normal screen refresh). When selected, you will be prompted for the two values. Hit return to accept the current value, or type in your change. The Quit Menu: This exits the program after asking if you are sure. Status Quo: The status line at the top of the screen is updated every 100 cycles. If the right button is pressed during the simulation, it is updated every cycle (and slows the simulation down to a CRAWL). The Doctor's Office: When the main menu is active and you choose a bug with the cursor, a box is brought up so that you may examine and modify the bug's genes. This option allows you the chance to play God, or the supreme being of your choice, by trying your hand at genetic engineering. Nurse, Scalpel... To change a particular gene, click on the number you wish to change, a box will appear with the previous value in it. To accept this value, hit , otherwise, type the new value and hit . You may change any value below the "Genes" line and the Coordinates of the bug. To change the bug's position, click on the "Coordinates" line and then click to the point on the screen where you want the bug to be. Unnecessary Surgery: It's up to you decide whether or not it's "ethical" to play with the lives (albeit simple lives) of the bugs. We use this option to play a game. Each person is allowed to modify one bug as he or she deems fit at the beginning of the simulation. Once the simulation starts, each is forbidden to change the bugs. The player who's bug survives the longest wins. 13 INDEX Adding Bugs Add and Modify 10 Add Random 10 Alpha Chi Rho 2 Beer 3 Bio majors 1 Brain damage 3 Caveats Display modes 12 Maximum number of bugs 4 Clear Trace or Graph screen 12 Colors In general 11 Color by Generation 11 Configuration 8 Cotton candy 2 Debug 9, 11 Dewdney 1 Directions 5 Doctor's Office 13 Dos Equis 3 Escape or Back up 7 Examining bugs 9, 13 Modifying bugs 13 Fill screen 10 Food Chow time 4 Food Value 10 Refresh Rate 10 Flags Menu 9 Saving 8 Game 13 Garden of Eden In general 11 Set garden boundaries 12 Refresh Rate 13 Genes In general 5 Directional 5 Obesity 4, 6, 9 Old Predator 5 Size 6, 9 Spawn Age 5 Spawn Energy 6 Young Predator 5 Graphing In general 10 Options 11 Have a nice day 3 In a hurry? 7 KeyMouse 7 Killing Bugs Death by old age 4, 9 Destroy all bugs 10 14 Exploding 4 Kill bug 10 Obesity 4, 6, 9 Predator Phase 4 Starvation 4 LPGA 10 Menus Action Menu 9 Display Menu 11 Flags Menu 9 Garden of Eden Menu 12 Main Menu 9 Options Menu 10 Trace/Graph Menu 12 Quit Menu 13 Motion 5 Mice In general 7 KeyMouse 7 Left Button 7 Right Button 7 Mutational Mitosis 1 Non-Predators 9 Obesity 4, 6, 9 Old Age, Death by 4, 9 Overview 1 Predator Phase In general 4 Non-Predators 9 Probability 5 Protozoa 1 Quadro-triticale 1 Quit 9, 13 Refresh Rate Screen 10 Garden of Eden 13 Registration 3 Santa Claus 3 Scientific American 1 Size 6, 9 Spawning In general 3, 9 Age 5 Energy 6 Starvation 4 Status Line 13 Toggling Options 8 Trace Options 11 Trekkies 1 Tribbles 1 Versions 0.8 2 2.0 2 15