From an Iranian Carpet to a Cellular Automaton: Meet Toranj (ICM: Iranian Carpet Medallion)

[MortezaRahmani]

The following steps are the fixed part of the process and need to be done every time the Excel environment is prepared. To make this faster and more accurate, these repetitive steps can simply be automated with a small VBA macro.

* From Excel Options → Formulas → Calculation Options, enable Iterative Calculation and set Maximum Iterations to 1
* Set the Column Width to 0.06
* Set the Row Height to 0.75
* Select the required work area. For example, for a 480 × 480 area, select A1:RL480
* Set Format Cells → Custom → Type to ;;;
* Open the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager and create a new rule:

* Format all cells based on their values
* 2-Color Scale
* Minimum: Type = Number, Value = 0
* Maximum: Type = Number, Value = 1
* Choose the desired colors and confirm the dialogs.

That's it. The Excel environment is now ready.
From here, the interesting part begins.
The Golly code is no longer being used directly. Its underlying logic has been reduced to the formulas, constants, and offsets that are needed to reproduce the same behavior inside Excel.
Once those are implemented, F9 is all you need to recalculate the cells and watch the phenomenon evolve.
Of course, our program automates all of these steps. There is no need to perform this setup manually in the actual program. I have shown these steps here only to demonstrate the overall process and make the implementation path clear from the initial Excel setup, through the translation of the Golly logic into formulas, constants, and offsets, to the final result in Excel.

ExcelCA1.png (70.13 KiB) Viewed 104 times

[CasperWen8805181]

*snip*

I mean... Golly doesn't take that much programming either.

Excel is basically a tool that can be used for almost anything, albeit not the best at some.

Golly is a tool made specifically for one single purpose: Cellular Automata. I'm not saying excel is bad, I'm just saying why use excel when you have golly? besides, golly isn't pay to use either!

Once you get to use golly for a little while, It's pretty easy! I don't see any point for people not taking CA seriously to use excel to run CA, since there's already LifeViewer, and for those who do, there are tons of more specialized and advanced tools, like Golly and Apgsearch.

After I wrote all this I noticed my stuff is basically the same as dvgrn's, but I dont wanna delete this ;-;

[MortezaRahmani]

*snip*

I actually agree that Golly is very easy to use once you get familiar with it. In fact, I wouldn't say that working with Golly code is difficult at all. Quite the opposite, it can be remarkably simple.
But I also think that using different tools can be valuable, precisely because each one makes us look at the same thing from a different angle.
For me, Excel isn't meant to compete with Golly. It's another way of looking at Cellular Automata. Sometimes working outside the usual tools can reveal structures, relationships, or possibilities that might otherwise remain unnoticed.
I'm also quite interested in making things more accessible and general-purpose. I think everyone should have the opportunity to understand these ideas and enjoy experimenting with them, even if they aren't programmers or CA specialists.
So I don't really see Golly and Excel as alternatives. I'd rather see them as different lenses through which we can explore the same subject, and perhaps even create something new along the way.
Oh, and now I realize my points have become pretty repetitive too. ;-;