Zoombaya

This is another Mandelbrot fractal generator. It is not the fastest nor the most
versatile, but it would be hard to beat the beauty of the pictures it produces.
These are some brief instructions on its use.

Some actions are indicated in the Instruction box on the screen and this file
will not detail everything.

ENTER or RETURN starts fractal generation if it is not already started. ESC or
Apple-period stops it.

When generation is stopped you drag the mouse to select an area to zoom to (the
area proportions are fixed 3x2 in this program). You can adjust the placement of
the selection with the arrow keys or you can drag again to revise it. When ready
to zoom press ENTER. Note that you can drag ending outside the window to enlarge
the selected area beyond the present area of the window.

When you get something you like, use "Save Specs" in the File menu. This just
saves the parameters such as position and size of the window and the colors. It
produces a very small file and you can have thousands of these on your hard disk
and the system will hardly notice. When opened (from the file menu or by double
clicking) these regenerate the picture.

If you want to save the picture itself use the Export command in the File menu.
This saves the picture (as you see it) in standard MacIntosh PICT format. You
can load it into any imaging program and print it, etc., if you so desire.

The program will also create a high resolution picture for printing fractals
with great detail. (Indeed, this is the reason for the large "suggested" memory
size, the rest of the program uses little memory.) To access this select the
"Create Hires Pic" in the Actions menu. (If this is not enabled then you do not
have enough memory available.) This creates the picture offscreen. Note the
progress indicator in the Instructions box. It takes a lot of time; typically
over 20 minutes, and a lot more if the number of iterations (Detail menu) is
large. When it is done (the progress thermometer disappears and the cursor
changes from the watch to the arrow) you can use the "Export Hires" item in the
File menu to save the resulting high resolution picture. The picture is
4000x6000 pixels in size (68.6MB), enough for a 360dpi print on ledger size
(11x17) paper. Since this size is too big for the PICT file format, the picture
is saved in a RAW format and you need a program that can read that format, such
as PhotoShop. Since RAW format is just that, no established parameters, you must
tell PhotoShop the expected parameters, which are:

width   6000 pixels
height  4000 pixels
Count 3 (bytes per pixel)
Interleaved
8 bits (per color)
No header.

This program is freeware. Copy it and give it to friends, but don't sell it.

Glen Bredon
bredon@sierratel.com
www.sierratel.com/bredon