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Kathie Lund wrote:

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I have been a lurker on this list for some time, & I can't seem to work out how to use the pars on the mailing list. Can someone help me please?

Paul N. Lee wrote:

You may also wish to create a copy of the full document that comes with FractInt. Just use something similar as the following from a DOS prompt:

"C:\Program Files\FractInt\FRACTINT.EXE" makedoc

It will produce a plain text file that can be viewed with even the simplest of text editors, such as Notepad or Wordpad.

--------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend that you follow Paul N. Lee's instructions and create the complete documentation for Fractint as he describes above. The file that Fractint creates is named: FRACTINT.DOC. If you leave the file extension as .doc Microsoft Word will try open the file (if you have Word installed) when you double click the file name. I renamed my FRACTINT.DOC to FRACTINT.DOC.txt so that when I double-click it a simple text editor will open the file instead of Microsoft Word. (On my machine when I open FRACTINT.DOC.txt it says "This file is too large for Notepad to open. Would you like to use WordPad to read this file?" When I click 'yes,' I am able to see the contents of the file.) The easiest way to find specific things in the documentation is to use the editor's 'Find' command. Make sure that your search term is not too general, like "fractal" or you will get too many hits. There is also a table of contents with page numbers given for various topics. To jump directly to a specific page number (without having to manually scroll down to the page) I just search for "page n" where "n" is the page number -- in fact I have found that I can get away with searching for just "e 83", for example, most of the time. To use Fractint to create the fractal specified by a parameter file and its formula: - Copy and paste the parameters and formula into a text file -- one that ends in .txt - Save and exit the file - I recommend a file name of eight letters or less since DOS programs can only show eight character filenames - Change the filename's extension from .txt to .par - Disregard the warning: "Are you sure you want to change it?" (Click: Yes) - This is your 'parameter file' - Run Fractint - Press the @ key to specify your parameter file and parameter set. This will initially show a list of names of *parameter sets* in Fractint's default *parameter file* named fractint.par. Pressing the @ key is called 'Run saved command set' on Fractint's Main Menu page. - Press the F6 key to choose the name of the *parameter file* you just created. - Use the cursor keys to select your parameter *file's name* - Press <Enter> - Use the cursor keys to select the parameter *set's name* within the file if it is not already selected. (There can be more than one parameter set in a single parameter file.) - Press <Enter> - The fractal will be generated - If you would like to change the resolution that the fractal is generated at, now is the time to press the <del> key, choose a different resolution and press <Enter> - When the fractal is complete don't forget to press the s key to save the fractal. The file name Fractint used will be shown to you. - Press <Enter> to remove the displayed file name - To view this fractal in Fractint at a later time press the r (reload) key, select its file name and press <Enter>. You will also have to choose a display resolution. Any image display program can display the files created by Fractint -- including the Microsoft Internet Explorer. Note that not all parameter files require a user-defined *formula*. Many parameter files use the formulas built into Fractint. In this case no formula is needed in the parameter file. As Paul indicated there are additional ways for Fractint to handle parameter files and formulas. There are many formulas and paramters for Fractint freely available on the internet. You should get a *full* version of Fractint from: http://spanky.triumf.ca/ Click: - 'Welcome to the Fractint Web Pages at Spanky.', then - 'Version 20.0 of Fractint Now available'. This full version comes complete with support files like fractint.par, fractint.l, sstools.ini, etc. Some parameter files posted to the email list serves [Fractint] and [Philofractal] use Fractint features not available in version 20.0. Version 20.0 of Fractint will not be able to create these fractals. These parameter files use features available in the 'Developer's version' (20.4.4) of Fractint available at: http://www.fractint.org/ The developer's version is usually very stable, but does not have all the support files packaged with it. The Developer's web page says, "If all you want is the executable package of the developer's version, download the file fradev.zip" which is available on that page. This is just the files: fractint.exe and fractint.cfg. This is what you want. Note that this version will be missing all the support files like fractint.par, fractint.l, sstools.ini, etc. so you need to have previously downloaded and installed a full copy of fractint 20.0 before copying: fractint.exe (20.4.4) to your Fractint directory. Note that copying fractint.exe (20.4.4) is intended to overwrite fractint.exe (20.0). Also copy the new fractint.cfg (20.4.4) to your fractint directory folder. An alternative to everwriting fractint.exe (20.0) would be to rename the original fractint.exe (20.0) to something like: fractint_old_20.0.exe before copying fractint.exe (20.4.4) to your Fractint directory. We are all happy to answer questions from newcomers to Fractint since we are proud of this aging beauty. Please do ask more questions -- you have found the correct place to ask them. - Hal Lane ######################### # hallane@earthlink.net # ######################### ################################################ -- No virus found in this outgoing message. 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