home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Using the Hodgepodge Machine:
-
- You can invoke the Hodgepodge Machine by simply typing
-
- HOD
-
- on the command line.
-
- However, there are a number of parameters that you may specify. They
- may be in any order. Each is invoked by a letter followed by an
- integer. THERE MUST BE NO SPACE BETWEEN THE LETTER AND THE INTEGER.
-
- Example:
-
- HOD A3 B5 G41 M6 I1000
-
- The above would do the following:
-
- A3 would set k1, the infected cells divisor, to 3.
-
- B5 would set k2, the ill cells divisor to 5.
-
- G41 would set g, the infection rate, to 41.
-
- M6 would set the randomizing rate to 6.
-
- I1000 would set i, the initializing rate, to 1000.
-
- Under ordinary circumstances you will not want to specify k1, k2, or
- the randomizing rate. These have defaults of 2, 3, and 0,
- respectively and the program will probably give the best results
- with these defaults.
-
- The infection rate, g, is the primary user-adjustment. Also the
- initializing rate may be worth playing with. Values of g much larger
- than about 75 or values of i much larger than about 10000 are
- probably pointless.
-
- The default for g is 25.
-
- If i is not specified, all cells are initialized. If i is specified,
- only that number of cells will be initialized. But since the cells
- to be initialized will be selected at random, the actual number may
- be less than i.
-
- All the above deals with beginning a new run. The alternatives are
- to resume an old run or to play back a sequence of frames saved from
- a previous run.
-
- HOD PHODA
-
- The above will cause HOD to playback the sequence in the file named
- HODA.MAT
-
- HOD RHODA
-
- The above will cause HOD to read in the data file named HODA.DAT and
- continue calculation from there.
-
- *** ------------------------------------------- ***
-
- Commands for use during operation of HOD:
-
- # (crosshatch) will cause HOD to toggle movie recording on and off.
- Movies are sequences of frames which can later be viewed in a more
- rapid succession. Please note that movies take up about 4800 bytes
- of disk space per frame. A HARD DISK IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IF YOU
- ARE GOING TO RECORD MOVIES. The movie file will have a name with an
- extension of .MAT and a base name of four letters beginning HOD. The
- final letter will be selected so as not to conflict with any other
- file on the same directory. Thus the first movie will be named
- HODA.MAT, the second will be HODB.MAT, etc.
-
- $ (dollar sign) allows you to specify the frame number at which
- movie recording will automatically stop. This lets you limit the
- size of movie files without constantly monitoring the program.
-
- ^W Writes the present data to a disk file. The file name will be
- created as for movies, except that the extension will be .DAT
- instead of .MAT
-
- ^D is the same as above except that the program exits after saving
- the data to a file.
-
- ^R reads in the data from a disk file. It has the same effect as
- using the P option on the command line. Data being worked on at the
- time ^R is invoked will be lost, so save your data before pressing
- ^R if you don't want to lose it.
-
- ^B toggles screen blanking. You can cause the screen to go blank
- when you want to let the program run for a while without any
- display. Pressing ^B a second time restores the screen display.
-
- ^S causes the program to pause so you can look closely at the
- display. Pressing any key resumes operation.
-
- ^C terminates the program immediately without saving the present
- data.
-
- *** ------------------------------------------- ***
-
- The Hodgepodge Machine is public domain software from KITTENSOFT.
- Written by:
- Dan Schechter
- Route 1 Box 19
- Amenia, North Dakota 58004