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Microsoft OS/2 SDK 12-15-1987

This is a OS/2 implementation of the game of Life.  It is designed to be bound
to allow it to operate in both the protect mode of OS/2 and in earlier MS-DOS
versions.  The program uses a mouse if one is installed, but one is not needed.
If no mouse is installed, the F9 and INS buttons act as if they were the
left mouse button and the F10 and DEL buttons act as the right mouse buttons.
The cursor keys move the mouse pointer.
When not in the active screen group, Life does not print to the screen and
can thus execute in the background.

Life was invented by mathematician John Conway.  Life is played on a grid
that contains cells which are either on or off.  At the start, a pattern of
cells are turned on in the grid.  The following three rules are then applied to
the entire grid simultaneously.  One full aplication of the rules to the grid
is called a "generation." The three rules are:

	1)  If a cell has two neighbors (counting both cells immediately
	    adjacent and diagonal from the one in question), the cell
	    remains in its current state (on or off).

	2)  If a cell has three neighbors, it is turned on (or remains on
	    if that was already its state).

	3)  If a cell has one or fewer or four or more neighbors, it is
	    turned off (or remains off if that was already its state).

The history of Life and many patterns of cells which produce interesting
results, including those contained here, can be found in the Scientific
American articles that introduced the game (October 1970 and February 1971) and
the book The Recursive Universe, by William Poundstone (Contemporary Books:
Chicago, 1985).

******************************************************************************

Files:
	LIFE.C	   - main Life program source code
	LIFE2.ASM  - fast assembler routines called by LIFE.C
	MOUAPI.C   - real mode mouse calls to simulate protect mode calls
	INT33H.ASM - short routine to call mouse real mode API, used by MOUAPI
	MOUAPI.LIB - library created from MOUAPI for linking with BIND to LIFE
	LIFE	   - directions for MAKE.EXE to build LIFE.EXE
	LIFE.EXE   - the executable program built from the files listed above
	*.LIF	   - sample files which can be read by LIFE.EXE

******************************************************************************

This program illustrates the following concepts used in OS/2 programs:

	* Binding programs for use in both OS/2 and earlier versions of MS-DOS

		Tools:	BIND.EXE, API.LIB, LIB.EXE

	* Calling OS/2 functions from C and assembler

	* Screen graphics in protect mode

		Calls:	VioGetMode, VioSetMode, VioGetPhysBuf, VioScrLock,
			VioScrUnLock, VioGetFont

	* Mouse support in protect and real graphics modes

		Calls:	MouOpen, MouSetDevStatus, MouReadEventQue, MouSetPtrPos
			MouGetNumQueEl
			Int 33h functions 0, 3, and 4

	* Memory allocation and reallocation

		Calls:	DosAllocSeg, DosReAllocSeg

	* Keyboard input

		Calls:	KbdCharIn, KbdPeek

	* File input and output

		Calls:	DosOpen, DosRead, DosWrite, DosClose

	* Signal handling

		Calls:	DosSetSigHandler

	* Other functions

		Calls:	DosExit, DosBeep

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