Module forma.pattern

A class containing a set or pattern of cells.

The pattern class is the central class of forma, representing a set of points or cells. This set can be initialised as empty, or according to a 'prototype' consisting of a NxM table matrix of 1's or 0's. Several helper methods for the initialisation of a pattern are provided in the primitives module. Once initialised, a pattern can only be modified by the insert method, used to add active cells. All other pattern manipulations return a new, modified pattern rather than modifying patterns in-place.

Several pattern manipulators are provided here. For example a shift manipulator which shifts the coordinates of an entire pattern, manipulators that enlarge a pattern by a scale factor and modifiers than can rotate or reflect patterns in the x (hreflect) or y (vreflect) axes. Particuarly useful are manipulators which generate new patterns such as the edge (outer hull) or surface (inner-hull) of other patterns. These manipulators can be used with custom definitions of a cell's neighbourhood.

Pattern coordinates should be reliable in [-65536, 65536]. This is adjustable through the MAX_COORDINATE constant.

Through an abuse of metatables, all functions can be used either 'procedurally' as

pattern.method(input_pattern, ... )

or as a class method

input_pattern:method(...)

Usage:

    -- 'Procedural' style pattern creation
local p1 = pattern.new()
pattern.insert(p1, 1,1)

-- 'Method' style with chaining used for :insert
local p2 = pattern.new():insert(1,1) -- Idential as to p1

-- 'Prototype' style
local p3 = pattern.new({{1,1,1},
                        {1,0,1},
                        {1,1,1}})

-- Fetch a random cell and the medoid (centre-of-mass) cell from a pattern
local random_cell = p1:rcell()
local medoid_cell = p1:medoid()

-- Compute the outer (outside the existing pattern) hull
-- Using 8-direction (Moore) neighbourhood
local outer_hull = p1:edge(neighbourhood.moore())
-- or equivalently
outer_hull = pattern.edge(p1, neighbourhood.moore())

Basic methods

new (prototype) Pattern constructor.
clone (ip) Copy an existing pattern.
insert (ip, x, y) Insert a new cell into a pattern.
has_cell (ip, x, y) Check if a cell is active in a pattern.
cell_list (ip) Return a list of cells active in the pattern.
size (ip) Return the number of cells active in a pattern.
size_sort (pa, pb) Size comparator for two patterns.

Iterators

cells (ip) Iterator over active cells in the pattern.
cell_coordinates (ip) Iterator over active cell coordinates in the pattern.
shuffled_cells (ip, rng) Shuffled iterator over active cells in the pattern.
shuffled_coordinates (ip, rng) Shuffled iterator over active cell coordinates in the pattern.

Metamethods

__tostring (ip) Render pattern as a string.
__add (a, b) Add two patterns to each other.
__sub (a, b) Subtract one pattern from another.
__eq (a, b) Pattern equality test.

Pattern cell selectors

rcell (ip, rng) Pattern random cell method.
centroid (ip) Compute the centroid of a pattern.
medoid (ip, measure) Compute the medoid cell of a pattern.

Pattern manipulators

shift (ip, sx, sy) Generate a copy of a pattern shifted by a vector(x,y)
normalise (ip) Copy a pattern, shifting its origin to (0,0).
enlarge (ip, f) Generate an enlarged version of a pattern.
rotate (ip) Rotate a pattern by 90° clockwise about the origin
vreflect (ip) Generate a copy of a pattern, mirroring it vertically.
hreflect (ip) Generate a copy of a pattern, mirroring it horizontally.
edge (ip, nbh) Generate a pattern consisting of all cells on the edge of a provided pattern.
surface (ip, nbh) Generate a pattern consisting of cells on the surface of a provided pattern.
intersection (...) Generate a pattern consisting of the overlapping intersection of existing patterns
sum (...) Generate a pattern consisting of the sum of existing patterns

Packing methods

packtile (a, b) Returns a cell where pattern a overlaps with pattern b.
packtile_centre (a, b) Center-weighted version of pattern.packtile.

Test methods

get_max_coordinate () Returns the maximum hashable coordinate.
test_coordinate_map (x, y) Test the coordinate transform between (x,y) and spatial hash.


Basic methods

Methods for the creation, copying and adding of cells to a pattern.
new (prototype)
Pattern constructor. This method returns a new pattern, according to a prototype. If no prototype is used, then an empty pattern is returned. For example, if called with the prototype {{1,0},{0,1}} this method will return the pattern: 

10
01

Active cells are stored in the pattern in a standard integer keyed table, and also as elements in a spatial hash map for fast look-up of active cells.

Parameters:

  • prototype (optional) an N*M 2D table of ones and zeros

Returns:

    a new pattern according to the prototype
clone (ip)
Copy an existing pattern.

Parameters:

  • ip input pattern for cloning

Returns:

    a copy of the pattern ip
insert (ip, x, y)
Insert a new cell into a pattern. Re-returns the provided cell to enable cascading. e.g pattern.new():insert(x,y) returns a pattern with a single cell at (x,y).

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for cell insertion
  • x first coordinate of new cell
  • y second coordinate of new cell

Returns:

    ip for method cascading
has_cell (ip, x, y)
Check if a cell is active in a pattern. This has fewer checks than usual as it's a common inner-loop call.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for cell check
  • x first coordinate of cell to be returned
  • y second coordinate of cell to be returned

Returns:

    True if pattern ip includes the cell at (x,y), False otherwise
cell_list (ip)
Return a list of cells active in the pattern.

Parameters:

  • ip source pattern for active cell list.
size (ip)
Return the number of cells active in a pattern.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for size check
size_sort (pa, pb)
Size comparator for two patterns. Useful for table.sort to rank patterns by size (number of cells)

Parameters:

  • pa the first pattern for comparison
  • pb the second pattern for comparison

Returns:

    pa:size() > pb:size()

Iterators

cells (ip)
Iterator over active cells in the pattern.

Parameters:

  • ip source pattern for active cell iterator

Returns:

    an iterator returning a cell for every active cell in the pattern

Usage:

    local ipattern = primitives.square(10)
for icell in ipattern:cells() do
    print(icell.x, icell.y)
end
cell_coordinates (ip)
Iterator over active cell coordinates in the pattern. Simmilar to pattern.cells but provides an iterator that runs over (x,y) coordinates instead of cell instances. Normally faster than pattern.cells as no tables are created here.

Parameters:

  • ip source pattern for active cell iterator

Returns:

    an iterator returning active cell (x,y) coordinates

Usage:

    local ipattern = primitives.square(10)
for ix, iy in ipattern:cell_coordinates() do
    print(ix, iy)
end
shuffled_cells (ip, rng)
Shuffled iterator over active cells in the pattern. Simmilar to pattern.cells but provides an iterator that returns cells in a randomised order, according to a provided random number generator. See pattern.cells for usage.

Parameters:

  • ip source pattern for active cell iterator
  • rng (optional) A random number generating table, following the signature of math.random

Returns:

    an iterator returning a cell for every active cell in the pattern, in a randomised order
shuffled_coordinates (ip, rng)
Shuffled iterator over active cell coordinates in the pattern. Simmilar to pattern.cell_coordinates but returns cell (x,y) coordinates in a randomised order according to a provided random number generator. See pattern.cell_coordinates for usage.

Parameters:

  • ip source pattern for active cell iterator
  • rng (optional) A random number generating table, following the signature of math.random

Returns:

    an iterator returning active cell (x,y) coordinates, randomly shuffled

Metamethods

__tostring (ip)
Render pattern as a string. Prints the stored pattern to string, rendered using the character stored in pattern.onchar for activated cells and pattern.offchar for unactivated cells.

Parameters:

  • ip The pattern to be rendered as a string

Returns:

    pattern as string
__add (a, b)
Add two patterns to each other.

Parameters:

  • a first pattern to be added
  • b second pattern to be added

Returns:

    New pattern consisting of the superset of patterns a and b
__sub (a, b)
Subtract one pattern from another.

Parameters:

  • a base pattern
  • b pattern to be subtracted from a

Returns:

    New pattern consisting of the subset of cells in a which are not in b
__eq (a, b)
Pattern equality test.

Parameters:

  • a first pattern for equality check
  • b second pattern for equality check

Returns:

    true if patterns are identical, false if not

Pattern cell selectors

These methods select certain cells from a pattern.
rcell (ip, rng)
Pattern random cell method. Returns a cell at random from the pattern.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for random cell retrieval
  • rng (optional) A random number generating table, following the signature of math.random.

Returns:

    a random cell in the pattern
centroid (ip)
Compute the centroid of a pattern. Returns the (arithmetic) mean position of all cells in an input pattern. The centroid is rounded to the nearest integer-coordinate cell. Note this does not neccesarily correspond to an /active/ cell in the input pattern. If you need the closest active cell to the centroid, use pattern.medoid.

Parameters:

  • ip input pattern

Returns:

    the cell-coordinate centroid of ip
medoid (ip, measure)
Compute the medoid cell of a pattern. Returns the cell with the minimum distance to all other cells in the pattern, judged by any valid distance measure (default is Euclidean). The medoid cell represents the centremost active cell of a pattern, for a given distance metric.

Parameters:

  • ip input pattern
  • measure (optional) distance measure, default euclidean

Returns:

    the medoid cell of ip for distance metric measure

Pattern manipulators

These methods generate different 'child' patterns from an input pattern.
shift (ip, sx, sy)
Generate a copy of a pattern shifted by a vector(x,y)

Parameters:

  • ip pattern to be shifted
  • sx amount to shift x-coordinates by
  • sy amount to shift y-coordinates by

Returns:

    New pattern consisting of ip shifted by (sx,sy)
normalise (ip)
Copy a pattern, shifting its origin to (0,0).

Parameters:

  • ip pattern to be normalised

Returns:

    A new normalised pattern
enlarge (ip, f)
Generate an enlarged version of a pattern. This returns a new pattern in which each cell in an input pattern is converted to a f*f cell block. The returned pattern is in such a way an 'enlarged' version of the input pattern, by a scale factor of 'f' in both x and y.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern to be enlarged
  • f factor of enlargement

Returns:

    enlarged pattern
rotate (ip)
Rotate a pattern by 90° clockwise about the origin

Parameters:

  • ip pattern to be rotated

Returns:

    copy of ip which has been rotated by 90°
vreflect (ip)
Generate a copy of a pattern, mirroring it vertically.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for reflection

Returns:

    copy of ip which has been is reflected vertically
hreflect (ip)
Generate a copy of a pattern, mirroring it horizontally. Reflect a pattern horizontally

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for reflection

Returns:

    copy of ip which has been reflected horizontally
edge (ip, nbh)
Generate a pattern consisting of all cells on the edge of a provided pattern. This returns a new pattern consisting of the inactive neighbours of an input pattern, for a given definition of neighbourhood. Therefore the edge method is useful for either enlarging patterns along their surface, or determining a border of a pattern that does not overlap with the pattern itself.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for which the edges should be calculated
  • nbh defines which neighbourhood to scan in to determine edges (default 8/moore)

Returns:

    A pattern representing the edge (outer hull) of ip
surface (ip, nbh)
Generate a pattern consisting of cells on the surface of a provided pattern. This returns a new pattern consisting of all active cells in an input pattern that neighbour inactive cells. It is therefore very simmilar to pattern.edge but returns a pattern which completely overlaps with the input pattern. This is therefore useful when shrinking a pattern by removing a cell from its surface, or determining a border of a pattern which consists of cells that are present in the original pattern.

Parameters:

  • ip pattern for which the surface should be calculated
  • nbh defines which neighbourhood to scan in to determine the surface (default 8/moore)

Returns:

    A pattern representing the surface (inner hull) of ip
intersection (...)
Generate a pattern consisting of the overlapping intersection of existing patterns

Parameters:

  • ... patterns for intersection calculation

Returns:

    A pattern consisting of the overlapping cells of the input patterns
sum (...)
Generate a pattern consisting of the sum of existing patterns

Parameters:

  • ... patterns for summation

Returns:

    A pattern consisting of the sum of the input patterns

Packing methods

These methods are used to find locations where one pattern overlaps with another. They can therefore be used to 'pack' a set of pattern into another. Note that these methods are not intended to be anything like optimal packing algorithms. methods
packtile (a, b)
Returns a cell where pattern a overlaps with pattern b. The returned point has no particular properties w.r.t ordering of possible solutions. Solutions are returned 'first-come-first-served'.

Parameters:

  • a the pattern to be packed in b`.
  • b ` the domain which we are searching for packing solutions.

Returns:

    a cell in b where a can be placed, nil if impossible.
packtile_centre (a, b)
Center-weighted version of pattern.packtile. Tries to fit pattern a as close as possible to pattern b's centre.

Parameters:

  • a the pattern to be packed into pattern b.
  • b the domain which we are searching for packing solutions

Returns:

    a cell in b where a can be placed, nil if no solution found.

Test methods

get_max_coordinate ()
Returns the maximum hashable coordinate.

Returns:

    MAX_COORDINATE
test_coordinate_map (x, y)
Test the coordinate transform between (x,y) and spatial hash.

Parameters:

  • x test coordinate x
  • y test coordinate y

Returns:

    true if the spatial hash is functioning correctly, false if not
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