note TheDamian I should point out that the line: <code> my $live = sum(@.grid[$^x-1..$^x+1][$^y-1..$^y+1]); </code> is somewhat speculative. It's not clear to me how multidimensional slices will interact with flattening contexts (such as the argument list of the standard <code>&sum</code> function). <p>It might be that that line needs to be: <code> my $live = sum(map {sum .[$^y-1..$^y+1]} @.grid[$^x-1..$^x+1]); </code> Though, given how ugly that is, I'd naturally prefer <code>sum</code> to be smart enough to flatten multidimensional slices. 253366 253438