February 2004 - Fractdev - mailman.xmission.com

Patch 6
by Jonathan Osuch 03 Jul '05

03 Jul '05

Tim, I'm going to try to wrap up patch 6 this week. So far, this is what I have: Fixed FPUcplxdiv and FPUcplxlog routines in fpu087.c to match assembler code. Fixed it so spaces are recognized in PAR entry names. Fixed evolver parameter entry. Fixed hypercomplex fractal type to turn off symmetry when a cj parameter is used. Fixed the plasma type to show the value of the parameter that is actually used in the image generation. Fixed the plasma type so that a parameter file uses the included colors instead of the default colors. Revised the plasma type prompt to reflect the values that could actually be used. Fixed inside=atan and outside=atan to use the full color palette instead of limiting to 180 colors. Modified the resume code to remove the Xfractint specific sections since they are no longer needed. I still need to move all this over to DOS and make sure nothing is broken. There are other fixes I would like to include, but haven't done them yet. Jonathan

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Julibrot subtypes "quat" and "hypercomplex" fix
by Gerald K. Dobiasovsky 15 Feb '04

15 Feb '04

Jonathan and Tim, I think I've stumbled upon the reason why "julibrot" subtypes "quat" and "hypercomplex" don't render correctly - it seems to be a simple case of wrong initialization in zlinefp() in file jb.c. However, my knowledge of Fractint's source is minimal at best, so its possible the fix is not complete (although all works nicely with the executable produced by *cough* old Borland C/C++ 3.1). Since the diff is small it's directly pasted below this text (hope this is ok). Regards, Gerald ------------------------ jb.c.diff --------------------------- *** jb.c Sun Jan 18 07:19:34 2004 --- ..\jb.c Fri Feb 13 06:27:48 2004 *************** *** 308,319 **** for (zpixel = 0; zpixel < zdots; zpixel++) { ! old.x = jxfp; ! old.y = jyfp; ! jbcfp.x = mxfp; ! jbcfp.y = myfp; ! qc = param[0]; ! qci = param[1]; ! qcj = param[2]; ! qck = param[3]; #ifdef XFRACT if (keychk++ > 500) --- 308,334 ---- for (zpixel = 0; zpixel < zdots; zpixel++) { ! /* Special initialization for Mandelbrot types */ ! if (neworbittype == QUATFP || neworbittype == HYPERCMPLXFP) ! { ! old.x = 0.0; ! old.y = 0.0; ! jbcfp.x = 0.0; ! jbcfp.y = 0.0; ! qc = jxfp; ! qci = jyfp; ! qcj = mxfp; ! qck = myfp; ! } ! else ! { ! old.x = jxfp; ! old.y = jyfp; ! jbcfp.x = mxfp; ! jbcfp.y = myfp; ! qc = param[0]; ! qci = param[1]; ! qcj = param[2]; ! qck = param[3]; ! } #ifdef XFRACT if (keychk++ > 500) --------------------- end of jb.c.dif ------------------------

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design doc for fractint formula parser
by David Burnett 13 Feb '04

13 Feb '04

Hi All, I am trying to implement a parser for my FractaCanvas project to read fractint formulae. I have got as far as extracting tokens and checking for placement. Does anyone have any design doc that describes how parser.c works (you do use design doc don't you). David

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no joy w/{fractint,winfract} on Windows XP SP1a
by Rich 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

Fractint 20.0 crashes NTDVM (NT dos virtual machine?). WinFract 18.21 crashes on launch. Is there no fractint joy for Windows XP? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

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bug report for XFractint 20.3
by Edwin 08 Feb '04

08 Feb '04

Hi, Just thought I'd send in the minor issues I've had so far. None of them are too bad, but in case anyone is interested... 1) I always get a beep at the end of drawing, even with sound=off. (May sound petty, but it really bugs me) 2) If I move the fractal window around the screen, the fractal appears to be recalculated. This could be a problem with a deep zoom. 3) Sometimes the image looks unfinished, as though Fractint never got around to filling in all the blocks when solid-guessing, even when it's beeped and reported the image complete. You can see an example at http://www.bathysphere.org/xf_prob.gif Regards, -- Edwin

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Xfractint version 20.3 patch 1
by Jonathan Osuch 08 Feb '04

08 Feb '04

Patch 1 to Xfractint version 20.3 is now available. The big change is that I can now compile the source using the latest gcc (very handy). What's new: Fixed the float bailout for the lambdafn fractal type when the EXP function is used so the float and integer images match. Jan Andres contributed Xfractint fixes that allow compiling with newer versions of gcc because varargs.h is no longer supported. Enabled the use of the long double type on Solaris. Moved the getwd() macro definition in prompts1.c after the #include lines, to avoid the mess that happens when the prototype for getwd() is included but it's already defined as a macro. Added some Solaris-specific comments to the Makefile. Fixed the sound in Xfractint so the beep turns off now. Changed lsys.c to use inline1 instead of the reserved word inline. ***** Yes, I know, the floating point only code is more broken than it was before. Solid guessing now doesn't work right. Since we are trying to get an official release of the integer/float together, I'm not going to look at it right now. Anyone who wishes to look at it and fix it, may. Hopefully, I should get patch 1 for the DOS code out this afternoon. Jonathan

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Very minor issues
by Gerald K. Dobiasovsky 07 Feb '04

07 Feb '04

Jonathan, two small things, one merely cosmetic, the other not serious either (provided it's a bug at all)... In fractalp.c the second prompt for type "dynamic" is missing a closing parenthesis: "time step (<0 = Euler" In gifview.c the following line appears two times to set the color depth: planes = (buffer[10] & 0x0F) + 1; Now this masks the lowest 4 bits, where the lowest 3 determine the color depth and the next bit is set to zero in GIF87a anyway, but in GIF89a it might be set to 1 signalling an "ordered palette". So if someone is loading a non-fractint GIF with this bit set... (If the last paragraph is nonsense - not too unlikely considering my programming "expertise" - please kindly ignore.) Regards, Gerald

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varargs.h versus stdarg.h
by Jonathan Osuch 04 Feb '04

04 Feb '04

Tim, It appears that gcc will not be supporting the use of varargs.h any more. They suggest using stdarg.h. This is fine, I had started to do that in my last patch. However, I am now stuck with the integer version that is patched but I can not compile. I've uploaded it to the fractint directory. Would you please compile it and let me know if it is okay? Is there any need to maintain the ability to use varargs.h? I had not thought of that when I was doing the last patch, but I can fix it if we need to keep the varargs.h code in place. Jonathan

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Floating point error in LambdaFn exp
by David Burnett 04 Feb '04

04 Feb '04

Hi, It seems there has been a bug in LambdaexponentFractal() for a long time. This shows up in cet16109 (the example params for LambdaFn from the Fractal Creations book) This works in integer, but when you select floating point, it goes bizzaro, and hence doesn't work in 20.3. From my observations, FLOATEXPBAILOUT() doesn't work - it should be FLOATHTRIGBAILOUT I tried to compile the changes using a freshly downloaded JBuilderX, but all I got was a lot of obscure error messages., which reminds me of why I work in java nowadays. If someone feels like checking it out...... I have included the params below, so you don't have to go looking for it. I will get around to figuring out how to compile fractint sometime, but as it doesn't run with my parhelia card, it's low on the list. David cet16109 { reset=2000 type=lambdafn function=exp corners=-5.711838/-0.009338379/0.1610565/4.436798 params=2/4 inside=0 potential=255/511/0 cyclerange=2/255 colors=0006OL3LI0IE<9>UfhXik_kn<3>kuz<9>IMaFI_CFX<3>00N<9>bWVfZVjaW<3>zn\ Z<9>`KFZHDWEB<3>M13<2>S8BVBEXEGZHJ`JM<3>iUYkX_n_bpaerdhtgk<8>mUTlSRkRP<3\ >gKGfIDdHD<7>N76L65J54<3>A00<9>TY_VacXdg<3>cru<9>FL`DHZAEX<3>00P<3>KSePY\ iUdmZkqcru<9>FbdDabA_`<3>0UU<3>OeZUh`Zja<3>vvf<15>xaRx`Qx_P<2>xWMyUKxXM<\ 3>phUnkWlnY<3>dze<6>N`OLXLIUI<3>8F8<9>UheWkiYnl<3>fzz<12>9RO }

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Fractals in Java,anyone......
by David Burnett 04 Feb '04

04 Feb '04

Hi All, Looking through the list archives, I came across a thread on the the idea of rewriting fractint in java.. Seems like an excellent idea to me, especially the part about doing speedup optimisations in native code (C or even assembler with a C api). I had just come to the same conclusion for my own project. Thie optimised code could then be loaded for those OS it has been done for and the default java code run for others. It would have the java advantage of running on anything, be much easier to maintain. and best of all , I could contribute ;-) That rave was probably just an intro so I could show you my attempt at a fractal generator...... <shameless_plug> I have a fractal applet on the net at http://qlt.net.au/canvas, which is modelled slightly after winfract. I originally wrote it as a single class applet which made my gallery pictures active, so that anyone could open the applet and explore the area around the image. Since then it has grown (as they do) and now has a user interface and a plugin architecture. The interface is fairly rudimentary because I have tried to keep the size down (currently at 99k) If anyone feels like checking it out and, possibly giving some feedback, I would appreciate it. You will need a real jvm installed (not the crippleware m$ / IE one) to run it </shameless_plug> regards David

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