From 212948b1c4c5d10332d150ff69f6dbd567560ba9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: mat ess <mat@mat.services>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2022 21:37:48 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Add build instructions and make lurker optional

---
 README.md     | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 ants/main.lua |  4 +++-
 life/main.lua |  4 +++-
 3 files changed, 52 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 README.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88d473c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# cellular automata toys in löve2d
+
+## toys
+
+### ants
+
+langton's ant, heavily inspired by Andrew Healey's [blog post](https://healeycodes.com/virtual-ants) and [code](https://github.com/healeycodes/virtual-ants).
+
+supports multiple colors by passing a custom set of rules, see [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langton%27s_ant#Extension_to_multiple_colors).
+
+click on the screen to spawn new ants.
+
+### life
+
+conway's game of life. supports other life-like cellular automata rules, see [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-like_cellular_automaton#A_selection_of_Life-like_rules)
+
+left click or click and drag to flip cells on, and right click to spawn a glider.
+
+## colorbrewer
+
+this repo includes a lua interface to [the lovely and accessible ColorBrewer2 colorschemes based on the research of Dr. Cynthia Brewer](https://colorbrewer2.org), based on [the original ColorBrewer code](https://github.com/axismaps/colorbrewer/) and the implementation in [Chroma.js](https://github.com/gka/chroma.js/).
+
+## running the toys
+
+if you have [löve](https://github.com/love2d/love) installed on your system, you can just run the toys by name:
+
+```bash
+love ants
+# run with a cool square pattern
+love ants LRRRRRLLR
+# other options
+love ants <rule> <grid-unit-width-px> <simulation-steps-per-frame> 
+
+love life
+# run with HighLife rules
+love life B36/S23
+# other options
+love life <rule> <grid-unit-width-px> <simulation-steps-per-frame>
+```
+
+if you have [nix](https://nixos.org), you can use the provided flake.nix to get a working environment for running the games, as well as support for hot reloading if you want to hack on them.
+
+```bash
+nix develop
+love ...
+```
diff --git a/ants/main.lua b/ants/main.lua
index 7b668d1..8802217 100644
--- a/ants/main.lua
+++ b/ants/main.lua
@@ -132,7 +132,9 @@ function love.mousepressed(x, y)
 end
 
 function love.update()
-  require("lurker").update()
+  pcall(function()
+    require("lurker").update()
+  end)
   for _ = 1, STEPS_PER_FRAME do
     for i, ant in pairs(ANTS) do
       local c = nextColor(ant)
diff --git a/life/main.lua b/life/main.lua
index 39b8c60..b71f2fe 100644
--- a/life/main.lua
+++ b/life/main.lua
@@ -131,7 +131,9 @@ end
 FRAMELOCK_COUNTER = 0
 FRAMELOCK_FPS = 30
 function love.update(dt)
-  require("lurker").update()
+  pcall(function()
+    require("lurker").update()
+  end)
   FRAMELOCK_COUNTER = FRAMELOCK_COUNTER + dt
   if FRAMELOCK_COUNTER < (1 / FRAMELOCK_FPS) then
     return