Goldfrac

Goldfract v0.8 Introduction: Welcome to the first test release of Goldfract, a fractal program for the psion series 3a. Goldfract is a mandlebrot set exploration program. Additional fractal types will be added to later releases. Sure, it takes a little longer on the Psion, but this program can do almost everything that the big fractal programs for the PC can, including color cycling (even though its only 3 colors). This program was originally written so that I could explore the set myself, and when I saw that there wasn't any Psion Fractal software, I figured I would expand my little test program and release it to the psion community. Currently it takes about 14 minutes to draw the mandlebrot set using the defualt parameters. Zooming in on the set can run much faster or much slower depending on what part of the set you are looking at. The black areas take the longest to calculate. RECOMMENDATION: Run Goldfract in the background. It doesn't affect the speed of the other applets too badly, and it can draw whenever the Psion is on. You can usually get through a relatively large 160 X 160 zoom in a single day's use. Check out my web page to see some of the images I've created: http://www.cl.ais.net/rgold/computers/goldfract.html What is a fractal? A fractal is a mathematicaly described shape which is both self-similar, yet non-repetative. They represent a branch of mathematics founded by Benoit Mandlebrot in 1973, and include many types of iterated equations, that is mathematical formulas that are repeated with the results of the last calculation becoming the input of the next calculation. What strikes me about these shapes is how much they resemble things that we see in our natural lives everyday. Tree branches, coastlines, lung tissue, economic prices... all of these things are self similar and non-repetitive. To me life seems very much like an iterative process, where the results of what happened last year, are the inputs for what will happen next year. And as with life, the equations for fractals have no discrete "solutions" per se. They are simply the pictures created by iterating a calculation over and over again. It is these similarities that fractal equations bear to natural life, and the beautiful images that they create that has started a small mathematical and scientific craze around them, so I figure with this program, maybe Psion users can in on the action too. Installation: 1. Copy the FRACTAL.OPA application to the \APP directory of any drive. 2. Create a subdirectory called FRACT off of that \APP directory 3. Copy the MANDCOL.PIC file into the APP\FRACT directory 4. Install the application from the system screen using APP install menu function or PSION-I Basic Use: Zoom Mode. The program begins in zoom mode. It loads the full mandlebrot set and allows you to select a small bit of it to explore with the zoom box. Move the box over the area that seems interesting to you and hit enter when you are through. This brings up the mandlebrot settings window. The settings window allows you to change the image parameters and the size of the image. To accept the defaults, just hit enter. <p> Draw Mode. When you hit enter on the zoom screen, the program goes into draw mode. Draw mode is a slow process of calculating the value of each pixel in the image. There are time estimates which are updated at the end of each vertical line. These estimates should be on the high side for the most part. If you just can't wait that long, you can abort the plotting by hitting the enter key and the menu key is active which allows you to save whatever you have to a pic file. <p> Color Mode. Color cycling mode is simply controlled by the up and down arrows. The up arrow speeds the cycling up and the down arrow slows it down. The enter key quits. You can color cycle any pic file that you choose to load. <p> To Do Before Release 1.0: Make the quick keys work without menu directly Check that proct doesn't come up on load Change zoombox size and orientation allow resuming of an unfinished drawing after loading it Menukey folloed byy escape shoulkd resume drawing. Prompt for finish later after abort check the ps stuff. It doesn't sem to be working