Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 11:22:37 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Jan Hubicka <hubicka AT ta DOT jcu DOT cz>
To: djgpp-announce AT delorie DOT com
Subject: XaoS - fast realtime fractal zoomer for DJGPP,Linux/SVGAlib and X11 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.960910112157.26149D-100000@tabor.ta.jcu.cz>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

           New version of XaoS for MS-DOS,X11,Linux/SVGAlib is there!
                                    >X a o S<

CREDITS:
	Jan Hubicka	(hubicka AT limax DOT paru DOT cas DOT cz)
	Thomas Marsh	(amadeus AT bga DOT com)

INTRODUCTION:
	XaoS is a real-time interactive fractal zoomer for DOS, X11 and
	SVGAlib. It displays the Mandelbrot set (among other escape
	time fractals) and allows you zoom smoothly into the fractal.
	Various coloring modes are provided for both the points inside and
	outside the selected set. In addition, switching between Julia and
	Mandelbrot fractal types is provided. The first version was a
	poorly written Mandelbrot view by Thomas later modified by Jan to
	support high frame-rate zooming. Other additions were later made
	including autopilot (for those of you without drivers licenses),
	palette changing, GIF saving, and fractal inversion.
MAJOR CHANGES:
	New features:
	o port for MS-DOG using DJGPP called chappi
	o Removed unusable fixedpoint routines(386 users - go back to 1.0!)
	o New planes (toggled by pressing "i")
		- mu		(normal complex plane)
		- 1/mu		(inversed)
		- 1/(mu+0.25)
		- lambda
		- 1/lambda
		- 1/(lambda-1)
		- 1/(mu-1.40115)
	o Added "m" into help
	o Number_t clean-allows deeper zoom for long doubles
	Speedups (aproxx 4 times faster)
	o Better approximation algorithm in "mkrealloctable";
	  now it is about twice faster with a small zooming step
	o Aproximation in aproximation for yet better..also twice faster
	Fixes:
	o Default palette is now same at all architectures
	o Some memory oweflowing fixes(oops)
	o Fixed some divisions by zero
	o Lots of cleanups
	o Symetry code completely redesigned

HOMEPAGE:  (actually outdated for up-to date version browse europe mirror)
	U.S.:	http://www.realtime.net/~amadeus/XaoS/ 
	Europe:	http://www.paru.cas.cz/~hubicka/XaoS/
FTP:
	XaoS comes in various files:

	XaoS-1.1.tar.gz - unix sources
	*.rpm - for linux redhat
	xaos11s.zip - dos sources
	xaos11b.zip - dos binaries

	I've uploaded it to following ftp sites:

	ftp.ta.jcu.cz	in directory /pub/linux/hubicka
	sunsite.unc.edu in directory /pub/Linux/Incoming
	ftp.x.org	in directory /contrib/graphics
	some another good places?

REQUIREMENTS:
	XaoS, by default, uses floating point math for its calculations.
	This may be slow on some computers. The program was developed on a
	Pentium running at 100 MHz, so we can't guaranty that it will run 
	well on any slower system. If you just want to catch a cursory
	glance at XaoS' capabilities on faster systems then you might try
	compiling it for fixed point arithmetic by editing config.h
	accordingly.

	To compile XaoS, DOS or UNIX and X11 (or SVGAlib for Linux) is
	required. We are discussing the possibility of porting it to OS/2.
	Your C compiler must be ANSI compliant. GNU CC is highly
	recommended. An 8-bit display is required at this point since we
	haven't coded for TrueColor displays yet.


INSTALL:
	Installation methods are described in the file "INSTALL".

USAGE:
	XaoS has no command line options as of yet. It is one entirely
	self contained executable. Runtime help is provided by typing "H".

THANKS TO:
	Stanislav "XaoS" Mikes
		- for the name of our program
	Borislav Deianov
		- for sharing ideas
	Isaac Newton
		- for discovering his method
	Benoit B. Mandelbrot
		- for ordering the Julia sets
	Linus Torvalds
		- for the best operating system
	Tim Wegner & Bert Tyler
		- for Fractint
	Darryl House
		- for making Fractint's code readable

NO THANKS TO:
	Bill Gates


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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                       http://www.paru.cas.cz/~hubicka
      Koules-the game for Svgalib,X11 and OS/2,  Xonix-the game for X11
      czech documentation for linux index, original 2D computer art and
              funny 100 years old photos and articles are there!