They did get one detail wrong though. They took Mego saying that he had to write out the full GoL computer bit by bit as meaning that we had to simulate the GoL computer bit by bit. We never actually simulated even a single generation of the full computer, I think.
I'm looking at the traffic stats for the GCC backend and almost no one is even looking at the code or cloning it -- they're just seeing "qftasm" and "GCC" in the repo title and going "zomg half life 2 episode 3 in GOL confirmed" and staring it XD
I'm seriously tempted to fork linux to "qftasm-linux" but not change it and see if anyone notices
I don't understand why something that doesn't compile and hasn't been posted anywhere is getting 13 stars I guess. GH stars are more mysterious than chat stars
@quartata If the computer hits and unused instruction, I think (I haven't checked) that it would write the value 0 to the destination (argument 3). The computer would run normally aside from that.
@KZhang What's the total number of different 8m by 8n logic tiles that would still need to be rewired to replace the 11x11 based ones?
I think the Hashlife-friendly metacell will turn out to be period 4096, though I shouldn't say that until I've done more of the neighbor wiring. Definitely 512x512, anyway. Between that and the 8x8 rework, Golly should run the computer orders of magnitude faster.
P4096? Deep down I knew I was being way too optimistic. I still have some hopes that it will work at p8192, but of course we can just keep doubling till there's enough time for everything (and Golly will still run it just as fast). conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=&p=51330#p51330
@El'endiaStarman Yup -- or a 512x512 grid anyway, so a 513x513 box. The circuitry can still be packed quite a bit tighter, and otherwise the only missing required piece is the wiring connecting the metacell to each neighbor. So there should be something like a 256x256 area left where a metapixel piece can be added.
6 hours later…
Anonymous
21:00
@El'endiaStarman It seems to be a semi-serious journal written in an archaic, comedic fashion. I don't know how much extra attention it will give us, but I'm also not sure that it will hurt.
