Thread: Creating Langton's Ant and I need serious help with it (it's a block that moves around on a grid changing the symbol at each index)

In my code there are multiple packages and methods but I will try to keep it as simple as possible.

The grid and ant look like this:

// prints ant and board
System.out.print("+");
for (int j = 0; j < board.getWidth(); ++j) {
System.out.print("-");
}
System.out.println("+");

for (int i = 0; i < board.getHeight(); ++i) {
System.out.print("|");
for (int j = 0; j < board.getWidth(); ++j) {
if (i == ant.getIPos() && j == ant.getJPos()) {
switch (ant.getDirection()) {
case NORTH:
System.out.print("^");
break;
case SOUTH:
System.out.print("V");
break;
case EAST:
System.out.print(">");
break;
case WEST:
System.out.print("<");
break;
}
} else {
if (board.isWhite(i, j)) {
System.out.print(" ");
} else {
System.out.print("*");
}
}
}
System.out.println("|");
}

System.out.print("+");
for (int j = 0; j < board.getWidth(); ++j) {
System.out.print("-");
}
System.out.println("+");

I am using a class called execute step which makes the ant move in a certain direction. There is also a direction class called enum direction{ NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST}. Basically I want to know how to get the ant moving.I know that not many of you will understand this because I'm mainly appealing to those who have done the same thing before unless you want to challenge yourself. But please ask me if you want more information on the code, of course I can't post all of it due to it being in multiple packages.

sorry for the lateness:
Essentially by ant moving I mean I want to shift a unique block to another index based on the symbol at that the index (ie. if it lands on a symbol * it means it should change the symbol to a blank space and turn left OR if it lands on a blank space it should turn it into * and turn right. It is quite complicated I know). If you want a better explanation you can look up Langton's Ant however I think my explanation of what it does is more than satisfactory in terms of what the code should do.
How is the ant's location...change its location..?
I can't determine the ant's location unfortunately (it is beyond what I can do but it would solve a lot of the problems) as I am kind of going out on a limb here.

Don't worry about it, it's a lost cause.