C Implementation of the Game of Life

The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite grid of cells, each of which is in one of two possible states, alive or dead. Every cell interacts with its eight neighbors, which are the cells that are horizontally, vertically or diagonally adjacent. At each step in time, the following transition occur:

Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies, as if caused by under-population/loneliness

Any live cell with two or three live neighbors lives on to the next generation

Any live cell with four or more live neighbors dies, as if by overcrowding

Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction

Create a C program that simulates the Game of Life using grid size of 2020. Dead cells must be represented as dots () while live cells as lowercase Os (o). with these specifications:

Use the sleep() and system() commands.

As input, the user must choose an initial configuration from the following choices:

1. Glider

2. Small Exploder

3. Exploder

4. 10-cell row

5. Lightweight Starship

6. Tumbler

The initial pattern constitutes the seed of the system. The first generation is created by applying the above rules simultaneously to every cell in the seed births and deaths occur simultaneously.

Once the choice has been made, your program must automatically spawn the succeeding generations.

The maximum number of generations for this project would be 100. Once your program has been generating the same population for 10 consecutive times, terminate the generation.

If the maximum number of generations has been reached or if it has been terminated due to condition stated above, ask if the user wants to choose another configuration or not (1 for yes and 2 for no).

Include error handlings in your code (program must only accept numbers, not letters or symbols).