I'm taking a quick look at the Autokey capability of Fractint to see how useful it might be in regression testing during development of any new versions or features of Fractint. I was originally thinking of making these image comparisons between different versions of new code to check to see if changes had broken anything previously working. However, Richard and Paul also suggested that one could compare the DOS versions of the fractal images with the versions generated by new code. Autokey can also confirm that help screens are still being displayed, .par and .map files are being written out, as well as whether commands are processed as expected. One could have more than one set of regression tests -- perhaps: - one for verifying that the pixels of particular fractals are the same as a reference set of fractals; - one set for confirming that small versions of all fractals can be created; - one set for verifying that informative text screens all display; - one set for verifying .par and .map file creation; - etc. 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? <---<< This will also give me a copy of the code that matches the comprehensive HTML cross reference document that Richard created and posted of 20.4.4 at: http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/fractals/fractint-xref/ This document is a great way for someone who is not familiar with Fractint's code (like me) to start to learn how a feature works. Indirection of functions (function pointers) -- like outln() is hard to follow when you first run across it! In fact, the Xref is so valuable to me that I captured a copy to speed up access to the info. 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. 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! Reading the code that does debug 50 I see that one of the two images must be reloaded with the 'r' command. I also found where a pixel of value zero is written to the screen if the two fractals have the same pixel value, and where a pixel of value one is written if they differ (a nice feature), but I have not been able to tell where the second file being compared comes from. Any help about how to compare two files using Fractint would be appreciated...
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? <---<< 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? <---<< - Hal Lane ######################### # hallane@earthlink.net # ######################### -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.22/590 - Release Date: 12/16/06