Hal,
I currently only have the code of 20.0 to look at. I suspect that there are not too many differences between 20.0 and 20.4.4, but, would someone please tell me how I can get a copy of the 20.4.4 code? <---<<
The source for 20.4.4 can be found on the developer's web site (www.fractint.org or www.fractint.net) as fract-src-20.04p04.zip. If you need the Xfractint source, it is called xfractint-20.04p04.tar.gz. This patch was released March 11, 2006, so the cross reference generated by Richard will be pretty close.
Also, can someone please tell me how to use the debug flag 50 feature to actually compare two fractals that Fractint has created as stated in Debugfla.doc.
Once debug=50 is set (either on startup or from the <g> screen prompt), the image on the screen can be compared to GIF file by pressing <r> and selecting the file to compare to. The differences will be displayed on the screen and printed to a file called cmperr.
From reading the code in FRAMAIN2.C it would appear that you might need to be in batch mode for
debugflag == 50
to be used.
Is this true? <---<<
No, batch mode is not required to compare two images. I don't recall if you can automate the comparison of images using batch mode.
I also saw the warning in the docs...
Warning: an autokey file built for this version of Fractint will probably require some retouching before it works with future releases of Fractint. We have no intention of making sure that the same sequence of keystrokes will have exactly the same effect from one version of Fractint to the next. That would require pretty much freezing Fractint development, and we just love to keep enhancing it!
Also, I have the vague recollection that whenever I tried to run demo.bat in the past that it behaved in ways that I didn't expect (or didn't understand.) Is the demo capability currently behaving as intended in 20.4.4? <---<<
That would be caused by screens being changed as features are added and/or rearranged. Hence the warning. We don't generally look at this until we get close to an "official" release. Yes, the demo feature is behaving as expected. It is probably broken. 8-)) One problem with using the autokey and demo modes for regression testing between environments is that the screens have different layouts depending upon features that have been implemented (or not). Rich's refactoring of the source could fix this, but, it isn't easy. Jonathan