life

Conways Game of Life in Javascript

This was originally a weekend project I did for my portfolio when I was in Code boot camp over a decade ago.

I picked it up again recently to practive Agentic Coding with Claude Code and Codex.

Local development

Serve over HTTP (required for ES modules):

cd D:\Source\life\life
.\serve-local.ps1

Optional custom port:

.\serve-local.ps1 -Port 8080

Performance limits

js/config.js now separates practical and hard limits:

• Recommended max (for smooth interaction on typical hardware):
  • Canvas size: 1200
  • Visible grid size: 160
  • World size: 1000
• Theoretical max (upper bound allowed by runtime clamps):
  • Canvas size: 2000
  • Visible grid size: 240
  • World size: 2000

Defaults are capped to recommended values when fallbacks are used.

Minimap redraw throttling

Minimap redraw frequency can be throttled with:

• CONFIG.MINIMAP_REDRAW_THROTTLE_MS in js/config.js

Set to 0 (default) for immediate redraws, or a value like 16/33 to reduce redraw pressure during rapid pan/zoom interactions.