Winmand: a Free and Simple Fractal Generator
How is a fractal really made?
If you really want to see how a fractal-generating program works then download the source and executable of Winmand as a zip file (50 k). This program was written by Robert Banting. It is about as simple as a Windows fractal generator can be. It allows you to zoom into the mandelbrot set. You can view the source of the program with notepad. If you have a C compiler you can compile and alter the program to see what happens when various parameters are changed, make it draw other fractals, and so forth. The source of the program contains a long comment in clear English that explains exactly how the fractal image is generated. If you want to just play with the program then you can do that without even looking at the source.
To see just the explanation, with the core part of the code, click here. Here is the output from the program (click to enlarge).
To zoom in using Winmand just drag the left mouse button to create a zoom window and then right click inside the zoom window to enlarge it. Hit 'b' to zoom back out. You can save the images created by hitting alt-'print screen' and putting down the image in Paint or some other graphic program.
If you really want to see how a fractal-generating program works then download the source and executable of Winmand as a zip file (50 k). This program was written by Robert Banting. It is about as simple as a Windows fractal generator can be. It allows you to zoom into the mandelbrot set. You can view the source of the program with notepad. If you have a C compiler you can compile and alter the program to see what happens when various parameters are changed, make it draw other fractals, and so forth. The source of the program contains a long comment in clear English that explains exactly how the fractal image is generated. If you want to just play with the program then you can do that without even looking at the source.
To see just the explanation, with the core part of the code, click here. Here is the output from the program (click to enlarge).
