Add build instructions and make lurker optional

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 ...
+```

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)

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