Written on 

Conway's Game of Life redefined

programming unix

I have no clue where I found this clever implementation of Conway’s Game of Life but I like it a lot:

char*b=
"        " 
"        " 
"    ##  " 
"   ##   " 
"    #   " 
"        " 
"        " 
"        " 
,*dna[]={
"};main(){int i,j,k,n;char*p;puts(xchar*b=x);for(i=0;i<64;i++,i&7||puts(xzxx))",
"{i&7||putchar(34);for(n=-b[i],k=-8,j=0;j<9;j++,jy3||(k+=8))n+=b[(i+k&56)",
"|(i+jy3-1&7)];putchar(x #x[n==262&&b[i]==35||n==265]);}puts(x,*dna[]={x);for",
"(i=0;i<5;i++)printf(xzxyszx,znx,dna[i]);for(i=0;i<5;i++,putchar(10))for(",
"p=dna[i];*p;++p)putchar(*p==120?34:*p==121?37:*p==122?92:*p);}",
};main(){int i,j,k,n;char*p;puts("char*b=");for(i=0;i<64;i++,i&7||puts("\""))
{i&7||putchar(34);for(n=-b[i],k=-8,j=0;j<9;j++,j%3||(k+=8))n+=b[(i+k&56)
|(i+j%3-1&7)];putchar(" #"[n==262&&b[i]==35||n==265]);}puts(",*dna[]={");for
(i=0;i<5;i++)printf("\"%s\",\n",dna[i]);for(i=0;i<5;i++,putchar(10))for(
p=dna[i];*p;++p)putchar(*p==120?34:*p==121?37:*p==122?92:*p);}

The result shouldn’t be that surprising, if you know anything about Quines:

 $ gcc -o life life.c 2>/dev/null
 $ ./life > life2.c
 $ diff -U0 life.c life2.c 
--- life.c      2005-06-05 00:42:34.000000000 +0200
+++ life2.c     2020-06-05 00:43.30.707297628 +0200
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
-"        " 
-"        " 
-"    ##  " 
-"   ##   " 
-"    #   " 
-"        " 
-"        " 
-"        " 
+"        "
+"        "
+"   ###  "
+"   #    "
+"   ##   "
+"        "
+"        "
+"        "