MINIFRAC, V2.10 (c) Sam Laur, 1991-2 Documentation Disclaimer ========== All rights wronged, all wrongs reversed. Batteries not included. To avoid danger of suffocation, keep this program away from small children. Warranty void if opened. ...I'm not responsible for *anything* these programs do. If they break something down, you own the pieces. They did, however, work on my computer (386/25 MHz), and I hope (that's all) that they work on yours, too. What A Stupid Concept ===================== This was just a silly idea to test my Assembler-programming capabilities. Then a friend of mine suggested that I should make its size under a physical sector (512 bytes). At 310 bytes, it was quite fine, but then the madness began... After 8 months of no change in the programs, I suddenly made the zoom-box routines into it. The size grew a bit, but I think that at 1084 bytes it is, however, a lot better than Windows... eh, I mean Fractint. There still are some limitations to the zooming, e.g. you can't zoom back to where you came from. The program needs at least a 386SX, but using it with only a 386SX/16 may feel like hell on earth, so I recommend a fast machine if you don't want to die of old age while waiting for the program. It also needs at least a MCGA, but as I haven't seen any MCGA-based video cards on any other machine than IBM PS/2 Model 30, I might as well demand a VGA. Usage ===== Very easy, just write the name of the program at the DOS prompt and press Enter. You can't change the default parameters, however, unless if you recompile it. But changing the parameters isn't really necessary because you can zoom in as much as you want. (Well, almost, there IS a limit for 32-bit integer arithmetics, too, you know!) After the program has computed the starting screen, you'll see a small, dark dot in the middle of the screen. That's the Mandelbrot set, deliberately made small in order to make possible to zoom into the surroundings, which are calculated differently from the "original" Mandelbrot-algorithm, and form a fractal by themselves. To enter Zoom-mode, press PageUp. PageUp - To shrink zoom box PageDown - To enlarge zoom box Cursor keys - To move the zoom box around (fast) Control + Cursor keys - To move the zoom box (slow) *** Note *** On many computers the Control-Up and Control-Down key combinations have not worked! Enter - after placing the zoom box where you want it, this will start the recalculation. After the screen has been recomputed, you may press + to increase the maximum iteration level by 500. Needed when zooming into some places... Instead of pressing PageUp to enter Zoom-mode, you can press Home to return to the previous screen. There is a buffer of 50 screens, which should be enough. Throw Me Your Ideas =================== This piece of (buggy) code is distributed as Freeware : there is no obligatory "registration fee". The source code is included, you can play around with it but don't distribute the changed source code or compiled program before consulting the author (I want to know what you did better than I did!) If you have seen a smaller fractal program than this, which is as functional as this (yes, I've made a 137-byte version which just throws the M-set on screen...) inform me immediately, because it would be interesting to know if somebody else is as crazy as I am. If you use it, and like it, send me a message, preferably through my BBS or by E-Mail. If you DIDN'T like it, send me a message anyway and tell me what to improve... The addresses are: Internet E-mail : Sam.Laur@f42.n222.z2.fidonet.org slaur@landover.pp.fi (works sometimes :-) ) slime@mits.mdata.fi (preferred) FidoNet Netmail : Sam Laur @ 2:222/42 BBS (support?) : Slime-SBBS, +358 21 546045, 24H, 14.4k HST DS Snailmail : Sam Laur Bergeninkatu 6 D 30 SF-20320 Turku FINLAND But if you *really* insist on sending me a small sum of money, I won't object. I'm not forcing anyone to pay anything anytime, so if you do, blame yourself for losing your money... :-) Version history =============== 1.00 - 1.26 : Small tweaks and optimizations, each taking a couple of bytes away... but mostly these versions were quite useless. There was a 16-bit version of MINIFRAC but it wasn't suitable for zooming because of the poor arithmetics range. 2.00 : Suddenly cranked up (in one day) zoom-box handling routines. There certainly are some bugs waiting for being squished, that's why the source is included - for you to laugh at. 2.01 : Better cursor-handling procedures for the zoom-box. Checks for vertical retrace while rewriting the zoom-box - doesn't "flash" anymore. (Was the newest release for about 2.5 hours) 2.10 : Zoom-out implemented. List of things waiting to implemented ===================================== o A better keyboard interface; now it uses DOS interrupts and, in quite many cases, the keys Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down (fine up/down movement of the zoom box) won't work at all. o Some logic for speeding up the calculation process o For demanding zooms, 64/128/256/whatever-bit arithmetics. Autosensing, of course. :-) o An info screen on the coordinates of the picture o Save/load facilities o Command line interface o Exchangable palette maps o Color cycling o Better comments in the source (at this moment I suspect that nobody else than me can fully understand what it does) (You name it! Improvement suggestions welcomed!)