Introduction
FRACTINT plots and manipulates images of "objects" -- actually, sets of
mathematical points -- that have fractal dimension. See "Fractals and
the PC" (p. 164) for some historical and mathematical background on
fractal geometry, a discipline named and popularized by mathematician
Benoit Mandelbrot. For now, these sets of points have three important
properties:
1) They are generated by relatively simple calculations repeated over
and over, feeding the results of each step back into the next --
something computers can do very rapidly.
2) They are, quite literally, infinitely complex: they reveal more and
more detail without limit as you plot smaller and smaller areas.
Fractint lets you "zoom in" by positioning a small box and hitting
<Enter> to redraw the boxed area at full-screen size; its maximum linear
"magnification" is over a trillionfold.
3) They can be astonishingly beautiful, especially using PC color
displays' ability to assign colors to selected points, and (with VGA
displays or EGA in 640x350x16 mode) to "animate" the images by quickly
shifting those color assignments.
For a demonstration of some of Fractint's features, run the
demonstration file included with this release (DEMO.BAT) by typing
"demo" at the DOS prompt. You can stop the demonstration at any time by
pressing <Esc>.
The name FRACTINT was chosen because the program generates many of its
images using INTeger math, rather than the floating point calculations
used by most such programs. That means that you don't need a math co-
processor chip (aka floating point unit or FPU), although for a few
fractal types where floating point math is faster, the program
recognizes and automatically uses an 80x87 chip if it's present. It's
even faster on systems using Intel's 80386 and 80486 microprocessors,
where the integer math can be executed in their native 32-bit mode.
Fractint works with many adapters and graphics modes from CGA to the
1024x768, 256-color XGA mode. Even "larger" images, up to
32767x32767x256, can be plotted to expanded memory, extended memory, or
disk: this bypasses the screen and allows you to create images with
higher resolution than your current display can handle, and to run in
"background" under multi-tasking control programs such as DESQview and
Windows 3.
Fractint is an experiment in collaboration. Many volunteers have joined
Bert Tyler, the program's first author, in improving successive
versions. Through electronic mail messages, CompuServe's GO GRAPHICS
forums, new versions are hacked out and debugged a little at a time.
Fractint was born fast, and none of us has seen any other fractal
plotter close to the present version for speed, versatility, and all-
around wonderfulness. (If you have, tell us so we can steal somebody
else's ideas instead of each other's.) See The Stone Soup Story
(p. 192) and A Word About the Authors (p. 193) for information about the
authors, and see Contacting the Authors (p. 195) for how to contribute
your own ideas and code.
Fractint is freeware. The copyright is retained by the Stone Soup Group.
Fractint may be freely copied and distributed in unmodified form but may
not be sold. (A nominal distribution fee may be charged for media and
handling by freeware and shareware distributors.) Fractint may be used
personally or in a business - if you can do your job better by using
Fractint, or using images from it, that's great! It may not be given
away with commercial products without explicit permission from the Stone
Soup Group.
There is no warranty of Fractint's suitability for any purpose, nor any
acceptance of liability, express or implied.
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* Contribution policy: Don't want money. Got money. Want admiration. *
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Source code for Fractint is also freely available - see Distribution of
Fractint (p. 195). See the FRACTSRC.DOC file included with the source
for conditions on use. (In most cases we just want credit.)