Welcome!
Atabot is an ataviser for Conway’s Game of Life. That means you can give it a pattern, and it will try to find a possible predecessor for you.
This is version 0.1. I am currently working on 0.2, which will be completely rewritten in C++ (for hopefully better performance), and which will have more options and features.
Screenshots are available here:
If you don’t know what the Game of Life is, check out the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
Step 1: If you don’t have Python, install it:
Step 2: If you don’t have PyQT4, install it as well:
http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download
Step 3: Download the source code. (You don’t need the “experimental” folder if you don’t plan on messing with the code.)
Step 4: Run gui.py in your python interpreter.
Most of it should be fairly intuitive. You can draw patterns with your mouse, or load them in .rle format. You can also save whatever is currently on the board as an .rle file. To find a predecessor for a pattern, just draw it or load it, choose an algorithm, press “Atavise me!”, and wait!