Explain the java game of life?

Awesome job on your Game of Life implementation! For optimizations, consider using a sparse grid for efficiency. If you enjoyed this, you might also like exploring bat smash for added fun. Keep it up!

agree about readability: printboard sounds like a side effect, while boardtostring immediately tells you it returns a string. to speed up the game it's convenient to keep two arrays and write the next generation at each step, so you don't mess up the current state. it also helps to move neighbor counting into a separate function and carefully handle the edges, then the main loop looks simpler. i got distracted debugging the output and opened sweetbonanzalive.org and then spent a long time figuring out why my console was blinking. had a similar story with monopolybigballergame.com when i was thinking how to better visualize the cells, so separating simulation logic and ui really saves the day.