path: root/doc/xaos.info

This is xaos.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.11 from xaos.texinfo.

INFO-DIR-SECTION Graphics
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* XaoS: (xaos).               A fast real-time interactive fractal zoomer
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   (C) 1996-2008 Jan Hubicka and the XaoS Development Team

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.


File: xaos.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Overview,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

XaoS 3.4
********

                                 A real-time interactive fractal zoomer
                                                          User's manual
                                                         April 17, 2008

   This manual contains user documentation about XaoS -- a fast
real-time fractal zoomer. XaoS uses a development model, so sources are
freely available. The file `xaosdev.texinfo' in the source
documentation contains a hacker's manual (design overview, algorithm
description etc.).

* Menu:

* Overview::		What does this software do then?
* tutorial::		XaoS tutorial
* controls::		Basic controls
* video::		How to encode video files
* format::		XaoS's file format description
* writehelp::		How to write XaoS help files
* xshl::		XaoS simple hypertext language
* drivers::		Driver specific documentation
* menus::		Functions, menu items and command line parameters
* about::		Credits
* support::		Getting Support
* index::		Function index


File: xaos.info,  Node: Overview,  Next: tutorial,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Overview
**********

* Menu:

* Why?::		Why yet another fractal generator?
* What?::		What does this software do then?


File: xaos.info,  Node: Why?,  Next: What?,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Overview

1.1 Why yet another fractal generator?
======================================

We decided to make XaoS, because all fractal browsers we know of take a
long time to calculate each image. You may browse nice images generated
by them but real impressions of fractals -- the self similarity and
infinite zooming into the nice parts of fractals -- can be seen only in
animations. There are many programs available that make nice
animations, but they take a long time to calculate and lots of space on
disk. Most such animations are quite ugly because their authors can't
see them without many hours of calculations.

   A natural question is: is it possible to generate such animations in
real-time? The answer was negative for many years, since the Mandelbrot
set is very computationally expensive. Things are changing. Today's
computers are fast enough to calculate approx. 10.000 of pixels per
frame, which is enough for a very low resolution animation (100x100).
Several programs doing that are available. But 100x100 animation still
looks quite ugly. To make animation nice you need at least 320x200
pixels. And that is 6 times more!  One possibility is to wait until
computers will be fast enough, but it will take many years, and then
320x200 animations will be obsolete and everyone will want 1024x768
resolution instead or more.

   We found a special algorithm that saves up to 99.98% of calculations
during zooming by reusing pixels already calculated in previous frames.
There were some programs doing similiar tricks before but we don't know
about any able to do zooming interactively with a speed similar to
XaoS. Many other tricks were later implemented XaoS to achieve yet
higher framerates. Now XaoS does up to 120 frames per second on a
120Mhz pentium in a fullscreen 320x200 animation, and calculates an
average of 160 (0.24%) pixels per frame. This makes XaoS fast enough to
achieve its primary goal, realtime animation, but there are still many
areas that could improve, since more complex fractals, higher
resolutions, or slower computers still bring many problems.


File: xaos.info,  Node: What?,  Prev: Why?,  Up: Overview

1.2 What does this software do then?
====================================

XaoS is a realtime interactive fractal zoomer. This means that it lets
you zoom smoothly into any place in the fractal you choose without the
many hours of calculation required by most other fractal generators. It
now has many other features too, like 13 different fractal types,
autopilot, special coloring modes, support for various bit depths
(8bpp, truecolor, hicolor and realcolor), random palette generation,
color cycling etc...


File: xaos.info,  Node: tutorial,  Next: controls,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Top

2 XaoS tutorial
***************

This is a brief introduction to the basic XaoS features.

2.1 How to zoom
===============

The main advantage of XaoS is that after a few seconds' delay to
calculate the first image, you may choose any point with the mouse and
press the _left_ button.  The image will start to zoom smoothly into
the point you choose. You may move the mouse and zoom smoothly into
interesting areas. By pressing the _middle button_ (or _left+right_
buttons) you may also _move the image_ using "drag & drop" if you
missed an interesting place. _Unzooming_ is also possible by using the
_right button_, but it is much slower because optimizations are not so
effective as for zooming.

   In case you think that the default _speed_ is boring (it is quite
slow, to make XaoS smooth on a slow computer) you may change it by
pressing _arrow up/down_. But faster zooming is more expensive, so if
the speed is too high you will see little but funny colorful blinking
rectangles.

2.2 Autopilot
=============

To make XaoS yet more impressive we made a special autopilot that
automatically drives into interesting boundaries of the set. So you can
press `A', play your favorite music, drink coffee and relax. I never
tried this but it should be really relaxing! Many pictures in the XaoS
gallery were discovered using the autopilot.

   The autopilot also has some additional features. It turns back when
the zoomed picture stops being interesting, and is able to spot when
it's zoomed into a really boring part (or has reached the limit of
floating point numbers) and restart zooming from the top.

2.3 Various fractal formulae
============================

XaoS also supports formulae other than the Mandelbrot set. You may
change _formula_ using the _number keys_ or _SHIFT+letters_.

   On keys `1' to `5' are _Mandelbrot sets of various power_. The
"normal" Mandelbrot set is on key `1'.

   On key `6' is a fractal called _Newton_. It is Newton's famous
formula for finding roots.

   On key `7' is the _fourth ordered Newton_ fractal.

   On key `8' is a fractal called _Barnsley_.

   On key `9' is _Barnsley's second_ fractal.

   On key `0' is _Barnsley's third_ fractal.

   With keys `SHIFT-A' you can display a fractal called _octo_. It is a
fractal that Thomas discovered in fractint.

   With keys `SHIFT-B' you can display a fractal called _Phoenix_. It
is a very nice and quite famous fractal.

   With keys `SHIFT-C' you can display a fractal called _Magnet_. This
fractal has quite a complex formula so it is a bit slow.

   With keys `SHIFT-D' you can display the _Magnet2_ fractal.

   The rest of the built-in fractals are accessible through an other
menu, but you can still use the hotkeys.

   On `SHIFT-E' is a fractal called _Triceratops_ found by Arpad.

   On `SHIFT-F' is a fractal called _Catseye_ found by Arpad.  This is
more interesting if you change the bailout value.

   On `SHIFT-G' is a fractal called _Mandelbar_. It was in Gnofract4d,
and they found it at: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MandelbarSet.html

   On `SHIFT-H' is the _Lambda_ fractal.

   On `SHIFT-I' and `SHIFT-J' are the _Manowar_ and _Spider_ fractals,
they were found by users of fractint.  (Scott Taylor or Lee Skinner) It
was on http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractint/ taylor_skinner_type.html

   The next 3 fractals are famous classic fractals.

   On `SHIFT-K' is the _Sierpinski_ Gasket.  You can change its shape
by selecting another Julia seed.  (This is for technical reasons.)

   On `SHIFT-L' is the _Sierpinski Carpet._ It's shape can also be
changed by selecting another Julia seed.

   On `SHIFT-M' is the _Koch Snowflake._

2.4 Out-coloring modes
======================

To make fractals yet more interesting, more coloring modes for points
outside the set are provided. "Classical coloring mode" uses the number
of iterations that the orbit required to escape to (nearly) infinity.
You can change this mode from the _Fractal menu_ or by pressing key `C'
To see more about coloring modes, try the tutorial on Incoloring modes
from the XaoS features overview.

   Those cryptic names for coloring modes are mathematical formulae,
where _iter_ means number of iterations, _real_ means real coordinate
of last orbit, and _imag_ means imaginary coordinate of last orbit.

2.5 In-coloring mode
====================

In-coloring mode is similar to out-coloring, except that it changes how
things inside the set are displayed. This can also be changed from the
_fractal menu_ or by pressing `F'.

   You might also want to see the tutorial on Out-coloring modes from
the XaoS features overview.

2.6 Planes
==========

All fractals displayed by XaoS are functions with a complex parameter.
It can be displayed in the normal complex plane, where x is the real
part of the number, and y is the imaginary part; but it can also be
displayed in a number of other planes. You can select the plane to use
from the _Fractal menu_, or by pressing `I'.

   Like the coloring modes, planes have cryptic names. You guessed it,
they're mathematical formulae. Here `mu' means coordinates in the normal
complex plane. If you have coordinates in `1/mu' plane, and you need
coordinates in the a complex plane (to calculate the Mandelbrot set) you
simply use the coordinates as mu. Lambda is another plane that can be
converted to mu using a similar formula.

*mu*
     normal mode.

*1/mu*
     Inversion: infinity goes to 0 and 0 goes to infinity.

*1/(mu+0.25)*
     Similar to inversion, but moves the center outside of the
     Mandelbrot set so that it looks parabolic.

*lambda*
     Lambda plane.

*1/lambda*
     Inversion of lambda plane.

*1/lambda-1*
     Inversion with moved center.

*1/(mu-1.40115)*
     A very interesting mode for the Mandelbrot set. It makes small
     things big, so you can browse the set's details easily.

2.7 Mandelbrot/Julia switching
==============================

Most of the fractals displayed by XaoS (currently all of them) have two
forms: Mandelbrot and Julia. Every point in a Mandelbrot set has its
own Julia set. To see more about this correspondence, try the tutorial
on Julia set from the Introduction to fractals.

   In the Mandelbrot mode, you can get a corresponding Julia by moving
the mouse to an interesting point and pressing `M'. To get back press
`M' again. Some fractals (Barnsley and phoenix) are already in their
Julia versions, because the Mandelbrot ones are boring. But by pressing
`M' in such fractal you should get the Mandelbrot version, and by
choosing another point as the base point and pressing `M' again you
should get a completely different fractal. The most interesting points
for Julia sets are at the boundaries of the Mandelbrot set. Most of the
Julias inside or outside the set are boring.

2.8 Fast Julia preview mode
===========================

Fast Julia mode is a quick way to find a point to use as a base for the
Julia set.. Just press `J' and a small Julia set will be displayed in
the top left corner. Then move the mouse around with button 1
depressed, and the Julia for the point the mouse is over will be
automatically generated.

2.9 Palette
===========

If you think that the default XaoS colors are ugly or you are just
bored by them you can change it by pressing `P'. XaoS will
automatically generate random palettes. Many of them look ugly, so
press `P' again to get another one until you find one you like.

2.10 Filters
============

Many interesting effects are done by post-calculation filters. *Note
filter::.  XaoS has filters that do everything from embossing, through
motion-blurring, right through to turning the fractal into a
stereogram. To enable them use the `filter menu' or press `E'.

2.11 Palette cycling
====================

This is a very old trick that makes the Mandelbrot set a little
flashier. You may enable or disable it using `Y'. In the truecolor
modes you need to enable the palette emulator filter first. This is done
via the `E' key, or from the filter menu.

2.12 Changing number of iterations
==================================

To calculate fractals perfectly, you need an infinite number of
iterations. XaoS does just the first few of them, so after lots of
zooming you may get into a place that looks quite boring, and the
boundaries of the set are rounded, without any interesting details.
This can be changed by changing the number of iterations:

   Press and hold `arrow right' and wait until iterations are high
enough.  This may slow down calculation much. To reduce number of
iterations press `arrow left'.

2.13 Changing resolution
========================

XaoS usually starts in a low resolution (320x200 or thereabouts) to make
calculations faster. If you have a fast computer or you need to save
bigger `.gif' images, you may change the resolution. This can be done
by pressing `=' in the full screen drivers, or simply by resizing the
XaoS window.

2.14 Changing driver
====================

XaoS usually has more than one driver available. You may change it on
the fly in case you want a different one. For example, XaoS started in
X11 can be switched at runtime to use the AA driver. This can be done
from the UI menu.

   This action is bit dangerous, because XaoS can crash during
initialization if there is some problem with initialization; XaoS tries
to initialize a new driver, and if it fails it attempts to return back
to the original. Sometimes this is impossible, and all XaoS can do is
terminate..

2.15 Other features
===================

XaoS has many other features, but they don't fit into this tutorial.
Most of them are available from the menu, so you can experiment with
them. You might also want to see the _animated tutorials_ from the
_help menu_, to have an idea what XaoS can do.


File: xaos.info,  Node: controls,  Next: video,  Prev: tutorial,  Up: Top

3 Basic controls
****************

By default the mouse buttons work in the following way:

*left*
     zoom in

*right*
     zoom out

*middle*
     move fractal in a drag-and-drop fashion

   _Note:_ Since most Macs only have one button mice, these controls
are emulated on Mac OS X using modifier keys. See the help section on
Mac OS X for details.

   This behavior can change. If you enable rotation, the first button
is used for rotating fractals. Also, in fast Julia mode, the first
button is used to change the seed.

   If you don't have a middle button, press both buttons to enable
emulation.

   After few minutes of zooming you will probably exceed the precision
and the fractals will get boring. If you are getting strange big
rectangles on the screen, you probably reached the numeric limit: there
is no way to avoid this except un-zoom back and choose a different
area. It doesn't hurt so much, since you have zoomed approximately 64
051 194 700 380 384 times, so there are quite a lot of areas to
explore. Algorithms with unlimited precision exist, but they are still
too slow for real-time zooming.

   The other possibility is that you have reached the iteration limit.
The fractal is calculated approximately, and in this case you need to
increase number of iterations used for approximation (and decrease the
speed in the process).  This is done from the menu or using the arrow
keys _Left_ and _Right_.

   An _Up_ and _Down_ keys should be used to change zooming speed. Note
that higher speed costs more and image will be blocky.

   This behavior can also change. With palette cycling enabled, _Left_
and _Right_ keys change cycling speed; in continuous rotation they
change rotation speed.

   All other functions are available from the menu, which (in the
default configuration) are displayed when you move the mouse to the top
of the screen/window. It is useful to learn the shortcut keys, which are
shown in gray next to the menu items they trigger.


File: xaos.info,  Node: video,  Next: format,  Prev: controls,  Up: Top

4 How to encode video files from XaoS
*************************************

To create a video, make and `xaf' file first (the easiest way to do
this is to use the _record_ function in the file menu). Then you need
to render the animation. XaoS can output sequences of ordinary `PNG'
images, that can later be used by a video encoder.

4.1 Generating image sequences for video
========================================

To generate an image sequence, choose _Render Animation_ from the _Misc_
menu. You can also use the following command on the command line:

     xaos -render [filename] -size 352x240 -antialiasing
     -renderframerate 24 -basename [basename]

   _File to render_ (`[filename]') is the name of the `xaf' file,
_Basename_ (`[basename]') is the name used as the base filename for
rendered images. This should also include the path where you want to
save the images.  XaoS adds a four digit sequence number and `.png'
extension to this name automatically.

   You might also want to change the resolution. Make sure that the
resolution you choose is supported by the video codec you wish to use.

   The framerate can also be altered. Make sure you choose a framerate
that is supported by the video codec you wish to use.

   _Antialiasing_ (`-antialiasing') is used to produce anti-aliased
images.  It takes a much longer time and much more memory to calculate
them, but resulting images are better for video compression and they
result in a much smaller video file.  (the same is true of _JPEG
images_)

   On the other hand, the other XaoS rendering option _Always
Recalculate_ (`-alwaysrecalc') (which disables XaoS's zooming
optimizations) is _not recommended_. If that's used, the sequence of
animation then contains quite a lot of extra information, which
increases size of video file, but because of the codec's lossy
compression it is hard to see any difference, so it's not worth it.

4.2 Rendered files
==================

Once you start it, XaoS will generate thousands of frames. They take
quite a long time to calculate and save, and consume plenty of disk
space.  (e.g. to render part 1 of the tutorial you need about 60MB and
half an hour of time).

   All images are named `[basename]framenum.png'. For example
`intro0001.png' is the first frame of the animation intro. If
consecutive frames are the same, XaoS doesn't save them, so some frames
may be missing. If your encoder can't handle that, you will need to
write a simple script which will fill in the gaps by means of `mv' or
symbolic linking.

   A list of all filenames is saved into the file `[basename].par',
where each line is the name of one frame. The names repeat here if
necessary, so you can use this file to supply filenames to the encoder.

4.3 Encoding videos
===================

Once XaoS has generated the png files for each frame of the animation,
you can use a third-party video encoder to convert the sequence of
images into a video file. We currently recommend the following
encoders, which support a wide variety of video codecs and file formats:
*ffmpeg*
     Available from: `http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/' Instructions:
     `http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/faq.html#SEC12'

*mencoder*
     Part of mplayer, available from: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
     Instructions:
     `http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-enc-images.html'
   These are both command line tools. If you prefer a graphical tool,
you may prefer Quicktime Pro from Apple
(http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/). However, this software costs
approximately US$30, and the authors of XaoS have no experience with
it. Although QuickTime may be easier to use, the two free encoders
above are just as capable once you learn how to use them.

   Note: we used to recommend Berkeley parallel MPEG encoder to encode
the generated png files into MPEG videos. We have kept the instructions
mainly for historic purposes.


File: xaos.info,  Node: format,  Next: writehelp,  Prev: video,  Up: Top

5 XaoS's file format
********************

This section describes the format used by XaoS for animations,
configuration files and saved positions. All these files have a common
format, designed to be easily readable, to allow manual editing of
files and easy conversion by other programs.

   I also taken care to make it easily extensible for future versions
of XaoS so I hope there will not be many incompatibilities between
various XaoS versions.

   The format is a simple set of commands executed sequentially. XaoS
does not provide any variables/cycles as usual scripting languages do,
but future extension to full-blown Scheme should be easy since the
format uses Scheme-like syntax.  The syntax of every command is:

   `(command_name '_[param1] [param2]_`)'

   where parameters are optional and separated by whitespace (an
arbitrary number of spaces, tabs and newlines). The parameters can have
the following types:

*integer*
     number w/o decimal point (`123')

*float*
     floating point number in decimal notation with optional exponent
     (`1.23E2')

*keyword*
     text started by quote `''. It is used to pass various string
     constants like formula name (`'mandel') Quote is required for
     scheme compatibility

*string*
     Text inside double quotes. The only parameter that should contain
     whitespace

*boolean*
     `#t' for true or `#f' for false

   There is a complete description of all XaoS functions (with some
examples) and an index of functions in the XaoS registry. *Note
menus::. You may particularly want to read about the animation
functions. *Note animf::. Also, the following functions are significant:

*load*
     This function loads and interprets a file. It works similarly to
     `#include' in C.

*initstate*
     Available in version 3.0 and above, this function resets XaoS's
     state to default values. This command should be at the beginning
     of each animation file, since otherwise some stuff previously
     enabled by user could cause unexpected effects. State is not reset
     by default before playing animations since it would make it
     impossible to write macros. Current versions don't really need
     macros, but in future versions, when the Scheme programming
     language will be available, this should be a much more interesting
     subject.

*usleep*
     This function waits for a selected amount of time(in usec) before
     processing the next command. The screen is recalculated and
     displayed at the beginning of the sleep if necessary. The
     remaining time is spent by waiting, calculating if necessary, or
     performing any animation you entered via animation commands.

*wait*
     Waits until the animation or image rendering is complete. Do not
     call this function when zoom, or continuous rotation is active
     otherwise deadlock happens. It is a good idea to call it
     immediately before text subtitles are displayed, since it looks
     ugly when they are displayed over a blocky unfinished fractal.
     Because the degree of blockiness at a given instant is a function
     of your machine speed, it may look nice for you but ugly for
     others with slower machines. Also you should call this after an
     animation is performed, before the switch to another fractal
     happens; since the switch involves calculation, the screen is
     stopped for a while and an unfinished fractal there looks ugly.
     You should also call it, when you want to do something as soon as
     possible.

   Example:

     ;configure everything for the first frame
     (inistate)
     (palette 1 1163254293 0) ;custom palette
     (cycling #t) ;enable cycling
     (cyclingspeed 7)
     (maxiter 276) ;higher number of iterations
     (range 3) ;default range for solid guessing
     (usleep 1000000) ;second frame starts here
     (moveview -1.8101154154614007889 -8.2687205907162041209E-05)
     ;just move the image
     (usleep 1000000) ;third frame
     (morphview -1.8101154154614007889 -8.2687205907162041209E-05
     6.277210971069452361E-10 6.2772109785334669875E-10)
     ;10 seconds of zooming into selected
     rectangle
     (usleep 100000000)

   The best way to learn XaoS command language is probably to read
position files and modify them. For example, to create zooming
animation from the original file:

     (initstate)
     (defaultpalette 0)
     (formula 'mandel)
     (view -1.64128273713 -5.50393226816E-05 9.69332308848E-08
     9.69332308834E-08)

   Just change the `view' command to `morphview', and add `usleep':

     (initstate)
     (defaultpalette 0)
     (formula 'mandel)
     (morphview -1.64128273713 -5.50393226816E-05 9.69332308848E-08
     9.69332308834E-08)
     (usleep 10000000)

   The following code produces Julia morphing in the real axis:

     (initstate)
     (fastjulia #t)
     (juliaseed -2 0)
     (morphjulia 2 0)
     (usleep 2000000)

   And following is the "rotozooming" animation:

     (initstate)
     (fastrotate #t)
     (morphview -1.64128273713 -5.50393226816E-05 9.69332308848E-08
     9.69332308834E-08)
     (morphangle 300)
     (usleep 10000000)
     (wait)
     (fastrotate #f)

6 XaoS gallery
**************

I plan to make a gallery of animations and position files on the XaoS
home-page, so please send any nice animations and images you created
using XaoS to the mailing list or upload them to our website.


File: xaos.info,  Node: writehelp,  Next: xshl,  Prev: format,  Up: Top

7 How to write XaoS help files
******************************

XaoS help is stored in the file `help/xaos.hlp'. It is divided into
parts, each part being started by a _keyword_. In the help file
keywords are written as `%keyword'

   If you are writing documentation about some command in the XaoS
function registry, use the same keyword as the name of the command in
order to make context sensitive help work.


File: xaos.info,  Node: xshl,  Next: drivers,  Prev: writehelp,  Up: Top

7.1 xshl
========

_Xshl_ stands for _XaoS simple hypertext language_. It uses similar
tags to HTML. It is simpler and more restrictive in order to make it
easy to parse using various scripts. In C code you can use the library
present in `src/util/xshl.c' to parse it.

   The following tags are supported:

*head*
     make headings (should be at the beginning of the page, at least)

*emph*
     emphasize

*tt*
     Use non proportional font

*br*
     Break line

*p*
     Next paragraph

*dl*
     Definition list

*dt*
     Definition tag (should be used only inside a definition list)

*dd*
     Definition description (should be used only inside a definition
     list)

*center*
     align to center

*right*
     align to right

*red*
     change color to red (should not be used in help files)

*black*
     change color to black (should not be used in help files)

*white*
     change color to white (should not be used in help files)

*a name*
     link to other help page

*tutor name*
     activate tutorial

*notex*
     Ignore this in texinfo manuals


File: xaos.info,  Node: drivers,  Next: menus,  Prev: xshl,  Up: Top

8 Platform-specific documentation
*********************************

XaoS is portable and works on many different platforms. Since not all
platforms are exactly the same, there are some differences between the
behavior of XaoS on different platforms. Here is documentation about
each specific port.

* Menu:

* aa::			AA-lib --- high quality ascii art driver
* BeOS::		BeOS drivers
* DGA:: 		DGA driver
* dos::			DOS driver
* dX-fullscreen::	directX fullscreen driver
* dX-window::		directX windowed driver
* ggi::			GGI driver
* plan9::		plan9 driver
* SVGAlib::		SVGAlib driver
* win32::		Win32 driver
* X11:: 		X11 driver


File: xaos.info,  Node: aa,  Next: BeOS,  Up: drivers

8.1 AA-lib driver
=================

The AA driver is currently the most advanced and portable driver for
XaoS.  It is based on AAlib--a high quality ASCII-art library developed
by the AA-project.  (see `http://aa-project.sf.net')

   It is a fully featured XaoS driver for text mode displays. It
supports 256 colors and the mouse where possible.

   It also has some extended features available from the UI menu:

*Attributes*
     AA-lib may use character attributes to improve image quality.  By
     default it uses normal, dim and bold characters where possible,
     but you can also enable different attributes like reversed or bold
     font characters. You may also enable usage of non ansii/reversed
     characters if your device supports it.

*Font*
     AA-lib uses a bitmap image of the font to prepare the
     approximation table used for ASCII art rendering. This bitmap is
     expected to be same as the one used by your device. AAlib performs
     detection where possible however some devices (like UNIX text
     terminals or MDA) do not support this. AAlib has few font images
     compiled in, so in this case you should try to use one of them to
     achieve best results.

*Inversion*
     Some devices use inverse video: use this to get correct results on
     such devices.

*Dithering mode*
     Dithering is an way to get more exact color in approximations, by
     combining more characters; but this method can produce ugly
     looking noise on certain images.  Use this menu to disable or tune
     it.

*Palette options*
     By default AA driver uses the XaoS palette to render images, but
     it quite often looks ugly on text displays. Here you can choose a
     special text palette instead. Note that with filters enabled, the
     results may be rather ugly. This function is available from the
     _palette menu_.

*Save text screen*
     The normal save function will generate a PNG image instead of nice
     ASCII-art. To save ASCII art use this function instead. It
     supports many text file formats like HTML, ANSI, more, etc... It
     will also ask you for font and attributes(see above). It is
     available from the _file menu_.

   The AA-lib driver also provides the full set of standard AA-lib's
command line options. You may use them to tune parameters like gamma
correction, and so on.  See `xaos -help' or the AA-lib documentation
for details.

   The AA driver was written by Jan Hubicka, 1997.


File: xaos.info,  Node: BeOS,  Next: DGA,  Prev: aa,  Up: drivers

8.2 BeOS support
================

XaoS has pretty advanced support for BeOS R4. It works on both PowerPC
and Intel platforms, supports multithreading, the clipboard, file
dragging, has native look and feel and can work as an image translator
from XaoS files to images.

   The first version of the BeOS driver was written by Jens Kilian and
later extended by Jan Hubicka.

8.2.1 Installation
------------------

You can start the installation script to do everything for you. If you
want something special, read this section.

   In order for XaoS to work you need to keep the executable together
with its data files (`help', `examples', `catalogs' and the `tutorials'
directory)

   When first started, XaoS registers two new mime types called
`image/x-xaos-position' for XaoS Position Files and
`video/x-xaos-animation' for XaoS Animation Files, registers icons for
them and sets itself as default application.

8.2.2 Available display drivers
-------------------------------

XaoS supports following drivers:

*BeOS*
     Standard windowed driver using application server

*DirectWindow*
     Driver done using Game Kit's direct window class

*WindowScreen*
     Fullscreen driver.

   By default, XaoS starts in windowed mode and uses the application
server for output.  You could change the driver to DirectWindow to use
direct access to video RAM.  Note that this mode is slower in most
cases, and not supported by some videocards.

   The BeOS driver by default chooses the most similar bitmap supported
by XaoS to achieve best and fastest results.  In the UI menu you can
change this default choice to another one if you wish.  Also you can
ask the BeOS and DirectWindow to resize to fullscreen mode.

   XaoS also supports real fullscreen mode using the BWindowScreen API.
To switch XaoS to this driver, use the UI menu. If you want to use this
mode by default, use the `-driver WindowScreen' command line option.

   This driver differs a lot from windowed ones. It use direct access
to the video card, allowing you to change video mode. Also, the 256
color mode can access the palette, so it is not dithered like the
windowed mode.  Because BeOS can't do GUI in fullscreen mode, XaoS uses
its own toolkit.  I hope you will feel confortable in it.

8.2.3 XaoS as translator
------------------------

You should be able to open XaoS files in graphics applications such as
ShowImage or ArtPaing. In Preferences you can find the DataTranslations
program, that can be used to set the size, type and DPI of the
resulting image.  Also antialiasing can be enabled.

   Note that _translation can take a while_. So be patient and wait for
the result.

   If the translator doesn't work, ensure that you have a link to the
XaoS executable in `/boot/beos/system/add-ons/Translators/'.


File: xaos.info,  Node: DGA,  Next: dos,  Prev: BeOS,  Up: drivers

8.3 DGA driver
==============

This is the driver for DGA (Direct Graphics Architecture) extension
used by XFree86 X servers. It is pretty new so it could be buggy.

   Bugs/limitations:

*In 8bpp mode, XaoS has problems with the palette with certain window managers*
     I don't know why this happens. Just let me know what's wrong, or
     use another window manager.

*Banked modes are not supported.*
     I don't have any card to test this with, so it doesn't work in the
     current version.

   DGA driver was written by Jan Hubicka, 1999.


File: xaos.info,  Node: dos,  Next: dX-fullscreen,  Prev: DGA,  Up: drivers

8.4 DOS driver
==============

This is a fully featured driver for DJGPP and allegro.  It supports
many VGA modes, VESA 1.0--3.0, VBE/AF, S3 and some other cards.

   The following problems may occur:

*Some DPMI servers may cause problems*
     Some DPMI servers like the one from Novell/Dr/Open DOS are buggy.
     Use clean DOS instead and XaoS will automatically start `cwsdpmi'.
     Under Open Dr DOS use `dpmi off' at command line to disable it.

*Higher resolutions don't work*
     If your videocard has enough memory for the selected resolution,
     you most probably have an unsupported videocard.  Please use a
     VESA BIOS extension on this videocard. (See the note about VESA at
     the end of this section.)

*XaoS needs a coprocessor*
     I don't distribute a coprocessor library linked into XaoS because
     it is too slow for a real-time zoomer. Coprocessor emulation will
     not help, because xaos works in protected mode.

*XaoS needs mouse driver to be usable*

*XaoS works slowly in higher resolution*
     This could also be caused by Allegro's slow driver or your
     videocard's VESA BIOS.  You could try some other VESA BIOS
     extension instead.  Look at the `http://www.talula.demon.co.uk'
     for the FreeBE project or Scitech Display Doctor package.  (See
     the note about VESA at the end of this section.)

8.4.1 VESA
----------

VESA is a standard for using higher resolutions in DOS. Many videocards
have VESA support in the BIOS so you don't need any additional
software, while others need support from a special program. Also some
VESA BIOS implementations are buggy or suboptimal; there are 3
different versions, version 1.0 is many times slower than 2.0, which
has support for protected mode and linear framebuffers.  So if you have
problems with higher resolutions, or some graphics modes are not
available (like 320x200 truecolor), you might try some software package
which emulates VESA.

   The most famous VESA emulating program is Scitech Display Doctor. It
has support for many videocards and is quite reliable. It's
disadvantage is that it is shareware and works for only 30 days. You
might also look on `ftp.simtel.net', where there are many VESA
emulation packages such as `s3vbe' or the new FreeBe project at
`http://www.talula.demon.co.uk'

   DOS driver was written by Jan Hubicka, 1997.


File: xaos.info,  Node: dX-fullscreen,  Next: dX-window,  Prev: dos,  Up: drivers

8.5 DirectX fullscreen driver
=============================

This is da river for Windows 9x and NT. It is new since version 3.1 and
because of some oddities of Windows API and kludges in DirectX it may
be rather unstable. Please report all bugs. In case of problems you
could use the DOS version of XaoS instead.

   This driver allows the Windows port of XaoS to run in full screen
mode.  The driver supports 256, 65536 and 16777216 color modes (24bpp
and 32bpp) in all resolutions supported by DirectX.  You can change
graphics mode by pressing the `=' key (or by using the UI/Resize menu).
If the selected mode is not supported, the driver will restore the
previous setting.

   Use the `-mode WIDTHxHEIGHTxDEPTH' (like `-mode 640x480x16') command
line option to change graphics mode.

   If you want to start XaoS in DirectX, use the `-driver dX-fullscreen'
option.

   See the Win32 driver documentation for some more Windows releated
information.

   DirectX driver was written by Jan Hubicka, Jan Olderdissen and Pavel
Tzekov, 1999.


File: xaos.info,  Node: dX-window,  Next: ggi,  Prev: dX-fullscreen,  Up: drivers


File: xaos.info,  Node: ggi,  Next: plan9,  Prev: dX-window,  Up: drivers

8.6 GGI driver
==============

GGI stands for General Graphics Interface. Part of this project is to
develop libggi, a portable graphics library, and XaoS's GGI driver uses
that.  It is experimental, since the API of libggi is not stabilized
yet.  There are some problems with keyboard handling--the shift key
doesn't work yet.

   Everything else might work well, but there are no guarantees. It is
alpha quality software.

   GGI driver was written by Jan Hubicka, 1998.


File: xaos.info,  Node: plan9,  Next: SVGAlib,  Prev: ggi,  Up: drivers

8.7 Plan9 driver
================

Plan9 is a very nice small operating system by the authors of Unix at
Bell Labs.  It is very incompatible with other operating systems; even
the C compiler and header files are different, but XaoS should work
well there (even on the limited free demo installation without any
POSIX compatibility stuff)

   There are a few limitations: the file selector and image saving
don't work.  You can save position files and then later render them on
the other OS, or save screenshots.

   Plan9 terminals also don't provide any way to catch the arrow keys,
so you can't use them. Use the mouse to navigate in the menus. Also,
getting the screen resolution is impossible, so use `-pixelwidth' and
`-pixelheight' instead of `-screenwidth' and `-screenheight'.

   By default XaoS changes the colormap. This will collide with other
colorful programs like Mortha. You can disable this behavior using
`-nopalette' switch, but this will slow down XaoS.

   Plan9 driver was written by Jan Hubicka, 1997.


File: xaos.info,  Node: SVGAlib,  Next: win32,  Prev: plan9,  Up: drivers

8.8 SVGAlib driver
==================

This is a driver for Linux SVGAlib. I really like this driver, because
I much prefer full screen zooming instead of a small 320x320 window in
X11.  It was one of the first drivers for XaoS and is fully featured.
The following problems can occur:

*XaoS doesn't initialize graphics mode*
     when started under users other than root SVGAlib requires root
     privileges to directly access the hardware. When you really want
     to start XaoS as a normal user, enable the suid bit (`chmod +s')
     at XaoS executable.  note that I take care to disable all security
     holes caused by this bit so I believe it is safe.

*Mouse doesn't work*

*Screen is blank at higher resolutions*
     Both this problems are probably caused by misconfiguration of
     SVGAlib. Please configure it in `etc/vga/libvga.cong' or
     `/usr/local/lib/libvga.conf' GPM can also cause problems. Try to
     kill it before starting XaoS.

*When I switch console I can't switch back*
     This is another typical SVGAlib bug. Try to hold `F' key longer
     than `alt'.  It helps on my computer. On older SVGAlib there was a
     famous "enter bug" that caused a crash after pressing enter. Try
     to update to a newer release.

   SVGAlib driver was written by Jan Hubicka, 1997.


File: xaos.info,  Node: win32,  Next: X11,  Prev: SVGAlib,  Up: drivers

8.9 Win32 driver
================

This is a driver for Windows 9x and NT. It is new since version 3.1 and
because of some oddities of Windows API it may be rather unstable.
Please report all bugs. In case of problems you could use the DOS
version of XaoS instead.

   The driver should work in all bit depths, but 16 color mode is not
natively supported by the XaoS engine. XaoS internally works in 32k
colors and the result is converted to 16 colors by Windows. Because
Windows conversion routines are slow and ugly, the result is slow and
ugly.  Please configure your display to another bit depth to "solve"
this problem.

   Use `-size WIDTHxHEIGHT' command line option to change the default
window size.

   This driver also maps to native Windows look and feel. There is a
small problem with combo boxes in dialogs. They are expected to give
you a choice between a few strings. The keyboard controls (changing
choice by arrow keys) work, but mouse selection is broken. If you know
how to solve this bug, please let me know.

   XaoS is a UNIX application and has many command line options.  Some
features are not available from the GUI.  Because Windows applications
can't have normal output, most of the critical messages are displayed
in message boxes, but some longer messages are omitted. The most
significant omission is the help about command line options that you
can find in `doc/cmdopts.txt'.

   One thing that might be confusing is that animation rendering mode
doesn't display anything, but only renders images. Start the rendering,
and a message box will inform you that XaoS is entering the calculation
loop. Relax and wait for the message box signaling the end of the loop.

   Note that XaoS also supports the DirectX API.

   Win32 driver was written by Jan Hubicka, Jan Olderdissen and Pavel
Tzekov, 1999.


File: xaos.info,  Node: X11,  Prev: win32,  Up: drivers

8.10 X11 driver
===============

This was the first driver done for XaoS. It supports many visuals,
shared colormaps and MitSHM extension.

   Bugs/limitations:

*XaoS makes some X servers too busy*
     Sometimes XaoS generates images faster than X can display them.
     In this case XaoS responds poorly to the mouse, and other
     applications slow down too. This happens especially often on old
     R4 servers. Use `-sync' to avoid this problem. Note that `-sync'
     does `not' make all communication with X asynchronous; it just
     adds one additional XSync call.  So the slowdown is not as large
     as you might expect.

*Does not work on all visuals*
     This driver supports only 8bpp pseudocolor/grayscales, 15,16,24
     and 32bpp truecolor, 1bpp and 8bpp staticolor visuals.

*Palette rotating does not work for 8bpp pseudocolor w/o private palette*

   X11 driver was written by Jan Hubicka and Thomas Marsh, 1997.


File: xaos.info,  Node: menus,  Next: about,  Prev: drivers,  Up: Top

Függelék: A Menus, functions and command line parameters
**********************************************************

All XaoS functions are referenced by a central function registry. The
scripting language, menus, dialogs and command line options are built
from this database. This section contains information about all
functions available in this registry.

* Menu:

* root::	Root menu
* animroot::	Animation root menu
* plc::	Replay only commands

* linemenu::	Line drawing functions
* animf::	Animation functions
* time::	Timing functions
* file::	File
* edit::	Edit
* fractal::	Fractal
* calc::	Calculation
* mfilter::	Filters
* ui::	UI
* misc::	Misc
* helpmenu::	Help
* xtextpos::	Horizontal text position
* ytextpos::	Vertical text position
* mformula::	Formulae
* palettemenu::	Palette


File: xaos.info,  Node: root,  Next: animroot,  Up: menus


File: xaos.info,  Node: animroot,  Next: plc,  Prev: root,  Up: menus

A.1 Animation root menu
=======================

This menu is displayed at the top of the screen when animation replay
is active.

* Menu:

* file::	File
* stopreplay::	Stop replay
* helpmenu::	Help
* ui::	UI


File: xaos.info,  Node: stopreplay,  Up: animroot

A.1.1 Stop replay
-----------------

Terminate animation replay.

   _Available as_: menu item


File: xaos.info,  Node: plc,  Next: linemenu,  Prev: animroot,  Up: menus

A.2 Replay only commands
========================

Some commands, such as timing primitives or animation functions, are
available only in animation files.

* Menu:

* linemenu::	Line drawing functions
* animf::	Animation functions
* time::	Timing functions
* load::	Include file


File: xaos.info,  Node: load,  Up: plc

A.2.1 Include file
------------------

 -- Function: load file

   This function lets you include another file in your script. It works
similarly to `#include' in C or `load' in Scheme.  The file is searched
for in the same directory as the current source file.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: linemenu,  Next: animf,  Prev: plc,  Up: menus

A.3 Line drawing functions
==========================

XaoS has support for drawing lines. These functions are available only
in animations and could be used to show some parts of fractals or draw
simple diagrams. See the tutorial "Introduction to fractals" for
examples of this feature.

   Lines can be drawn in _screen_ coordinates, where 0,0 is the top
left corner and 1,1 is bottom right, _scaled_ coordinates, which are
similar, but scaled to keep 0,0--1,1 rectangular, or _Fractal_
coordinates, to draw a line at an exact position on the screen.

   The color of the line should be specified by the `color' command.
You might draw an arbitrary number of lines and, later, morph them.
Each line is identified by a unique numeric key; the current key can be
set using `linekey'.  Commands for changing lines operate on the line
with the current key.  (Lines drawn in sequence have consecutive
numbers.)

   For example:

     (color 'red)
     (line 'scaled 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.5)
     (line 'scaled 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.5)
     (line 'scaled 0.3 0.5 0.3 0.5)
     (line 'scaled 0.7 0.5 0.7 0.5)
     (linekey 0)
     (morphline 'scaled 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.3)
     (morphline 'scaled 0.3 0.7 0.7 0.7)
     (morphline 'scaled 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.7)
     (morphline 'scaled 0.7 0.3 0.7 0.7)
     (usleep 1000000)

   Creates line morphing to rectangle.

 -- Function: line keyword complex complex

   Draw line between two points.  `keyword' specifies type of
coordinates and should be one of the following: ``fractal', ``screen'
or ``scaled'.  This function also increases the line key.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: morphline keyword complex complex

   Morph current line to given coordinates.  `keyword' specifies type
of coordinates and should be one of the following: ``fractal',
``screen' or ``scaled'.  The line will start moving at the next timing
command, and reach the final position before the end of it.  This
function also increases the line key.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: morphlastline keyword complex complex

   This function has the same functionality as morphline, but it doesn't
increase the line key, and touches the line with the previous key. This
is useful when you want to move a just-drawn line--you don't need to
set linekey back.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: linekey integer

   Set current line key.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: clearline

   Clear current line. This function also increases the line key.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: clearlines

   Clear all displayed lines. Lines can also be cleared using the
`clearscreen' or `display' commands available from the Misc menu. *Note
misc::.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: animf,  Next: time,  Prev: linemenu,  Up: menus

A.4 Animation functions
=======================

These functions are used to animate fractal state--to zoom, unzoom and
morph various parameters. They should be used only in animation files.
Animations are usually performed for a time selected by an immediately
following timing function. *Note time::.  For example:

     (view 0 0 1 1)
     (morphview 0 0 2 2)
     (usleep 5000000)

   Will do a 5 second long unzooming animation.

* Menu:

* animateview::	Animate view
* smoothmorph::	Smooth morphing
* morphview::	Morph view
* morphjulia::	Morph julia
* moveview::	Move view
* morphangle::	Morph angle
* zoom::	Zooming functions


File: xaos.info,  Node: animateview,  Next: smoothmorph,  Up: animf

A.4.1 Animate view
------------------

 -- Function: animateview float float float float

   This function is almost identical to function `view'. *Note uiview::.
It expects that the view will be changed only slightly, so
recalculation is done with `ANIMATE' priority. This means that dynamic
resolution is used by default.

   Viewport is selected by the center and two radiuses (real and
imaginary). See `view' for more information.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: smoothmorph,  Next: morphview,  Prev: animateview,  Up: animf

A.4.2 Smooth Morphing
---------------------

 -- Function: morphview keystring starttime endtime
This function lets you smoothly start and stop morphing. Specify
starttime and stoptime as nonzero, and morphing will speed up and slow
down for that number of usecs.

   The keystring is used to select what morphing you want to control.
It is one of the following:
*'view*
     control morphview

*'angle*
     control morphangle

*'julia*
     control morphjulia

*'line*
     control morphline


File: xaos.info,  Node: morphview,  Next: morphjulia,  Prev: smoothmorph,  Up: animf

A.4.3 Morph view
----------------

 -- Function: morphview float float float float
For the time selected by the next `usleep' or other timing function,
the viewpoint is smoothly morphed from the current one to that selected
by `morphview'.

   Viewport is selected by the center and two radiuses (real and
imaginary). See `view' for more information.

   This function can easily be used for creating zooming/unzooming
animations using position files.  This is an example position file
generated by XaoS:

     (initstate)
     (defaultpalette 0)
     (formula 'mandel)
     (view -1.64128273713 -5.50393226816E-05 9.69332308848E-08
     9.69332308834E-08)

   By replacing the `view' command with `morphview' and adding `usleep'
you can create a zooming animation:

     (initstate)
     (defaultpalette 0)
     (formula 'mandel)
     (morphview -1.64128273713 -5.50393226816E-05 9.69332308848E-08
     9.69332308834E-08)
     (usleep 10000000)

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: morphjulia,  Next: moveview,  Prev: morphview,  Up: animf

A.4.4 Morph Julia
-----------------

 -- Function: morphjulia complex
For the time selected by the next `usleep' or other timing function,
the Julia seed is smoothly interpolated from the current one to that
selected by `morphjulia'. By default this will cause recalculation of
the whole screen.  To avoid this, use fast Julia mode. *Note
fastjulia::.

   A simple animation morphing Julia seed in the X axis:

     (initstate)
     (fastjulia #t)
     (juliaseed -2 0)
     (morphjulia 2 0)
     (usleep 2000000)

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: moveview,  Next: morphangle,  Prev: morphjulia,  Up: animf

A.4.5 Move view
---------------

 -- Function: moveview complex
Smoothly move the image center to another position.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: morphangle,  Next: zoom,  Prev: moveview,  Up: animf

A.4.6 Morph angle
-----------------

 -- Function: morphangle float
Smoothly rotate the image to another angle. By default rotation causes
recalculation of the whole screen. To avoid this you need to enable
fast rotate mode. *Note rotate::. Don't forget to disable it later,
since it slows down other animations.

   A simple "rotozooming" animation:

     (initstate)
     (fastrotate #t)
     (morphview -1.64128273713 -5.50393226816E-05 9.69332308848E-08
     9.69332308834E-08)
     (morphangle 300)
     (usleep 10000000)
     (wait)
     (fastrotate #f)

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: zoom,  Prev: morphangle,  Up: animf

A.4.7 Zooming functions
-----------------------

The functions for zooming/unzooming were created mainly for recording
animations. In manually created animation files, it is easier to use
`morphview'. *Note morphview::.

 -- Function: zoomcenter complex
   This function sets the center to zoom in on. The center is given as
a position in fractal coordinates.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: zoom
   Start zooming to the area specified by `zoomcenter'.

   The speed of zooming should be controlled by the function `speed' or
in a more exact way by `maxstep' and `speedup'.

 -- Function: unzoom

   Start unzooming from the area specified by `zoomcenter'.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: stop
   Stop zooming or unzooming.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: time,  Next: file,  Prev: animf,  Up: menus

A.5 Timing functions
====================

Timing functions are used to control the animation replay daemon. It
can wait for a given time, or wait until calculation is complete. The
animation functions are controlled by such waiting; animations that are
running while delays start keep running through the delay.

* Menu:

* usleep::	Usleep
* textsleep::	Wait for text
* wait::	Wait for complete image


File: xaos.info,  Node: usleep,  Next: textsleep,  Up: time

A.5.1 Usleep
------------

 -- Function: usleep integer

   This function waits for a given amount of time (in usec) before
processing the next command. The screen is recalculated and displayed
at the beginning of usleep if necessary necessary. The remaining time
is spent in waiting or performing animation.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: textsleep,  Next: wait,  Prev: usleep,  Up: time

A.5.2 Wait for text
-------------------

 -- Function: textsleep

   This function's behavior is very similar to `usleep', but the time
is calculated from the number of letters currently displayed onscreen.
If you want to wait just long enough for the user to read the subtitle,
use this function. The user can alter the replay speed as desired using
`letterspersec'. *Note letterspersec::. This value can be changed during
replay with the arrow keys.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: wait,  Prev: textsleep,  Up: time

A.5.3 Wait for complete image
-----------------------------

 -- Function: wait

   Wait until the image is complete. You should always use this
function after zooming or unzooming when dynamic resolution is in use.
This ensures that the image calculation will be complete so the user
can see the result before the animation continues. It may also be
useful in combination with filters like motion blur. *Note blur::.

   This function deadlocks if used with animation functions; don't do
that.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: file,  Next: edit,  Prev: time,  Up: menus

A.6 File
========

* Menu:

* loadpos::	Load
* savepos::	Save
* record::	Record
* play::	Replay
* saveimg::	Save image
* loadexample::	Load random example
* savecfg::	Save configuration
* quit::	Quit


File: xaos.info,  Node: loadpos,  Next: savepos,  Up: file

A.6.1 Load XaoS position file
-----------------------------

Load a XaoS position file (`*.xpf').  See the format description for
more information.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: savepos,  Next: record,  Prev: loadpos,  Up: file

A.6.2 Save XaoS position file
-----------------------------

 -- Function: savepos file

   Save current state to a XaoS position file (`*.xpf'). This file is
human-readable, and can easily be improved by hand after saving, or
used as a base for animations.  See the format description for more
information.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: record,  Next: play,  Prev: savepos,  Up: file

A.6.3 Record animation
----------------------

 -- Function: record bool [ file ]

   e Toggle recording to a XaoS animation file (`*.xaf'). This file is
human-readable, and can easily be improved by hand after recording.
See the format description for more information.

   From the scripting language, `(record #t)' enables recording, and
`(record #f)' disables it.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: play,  Next: saveimg,  Prev: record,  Up: file

A.6.4 Replay animation
----------------------

Replay a XaoS animation file (`.xaf').

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: saveimg,  Next: loadexample,  Prev: play,  Up: file

A.6.5 Save image
----------------

 -- Function: saveimg file

   Save current state to an image file. This file is in `.png' (portable
network graphics) format, which can be read by many applications
varying from graphics programs all the way to Web browsers.

   This function needs an external library called `libpng'. If the
library wasn't available during compilation, this function is
unavailable too.  Please see `INSTALL' for more information about
obtaining libpng and recompiling XaoS.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: loadexample,  Next: savecfg,  Prev: saveimg,  Up: file

A.6.6 Load random example
-------------------------

 -- Function: loadexample

   Choose random `.xpf' file from the `examples' directory and load it.
You might use it as the starting point for next exploration.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: savecfg,  Next: quit,  Prev: loadexample,  Up: file

A.6.7 Save configuration
------------------------

 -- Function: savecfg

   Save current configuration to `~/.xaosrc' (under Unix) or `xaos.cfg'
(under DOS and Windows). XaoS automatically reloads the configuration
from this file when it starts.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: quit,  Prev: savecfg,  Up: file

A.6.8 Quit
----------

 -- Function: quit

   Quit XaoS.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: edit,  Next: fractal,  Prev: file,  Up: menus

A.7 Edit
========

A fairly ordinary Edit menu.

* Menu:

* undo::	Undo
* redo::	Redo
* copy::	Copy
* paste::	Paste


File: xaos.info,  Node: undo,  Next: redo,  Up: edit

A.7.1 Undo
----------

Undo last operation. `Last operation' is quite hard to define in XaoS
(where changes are continuous), so it might be surprising.  I hope it
will do what you want.

   _Available as_: menu item


File: xaos.info,  Node: redo,  Next: copy,  Prev: undo,  Up: edit

A.7.2 Redo
----------

Redo last undone operation. See undo. *Note undo::.

   _Available as_: menu item


File: xaos.info,  Node: copy,  Next: paste,  Prev: redo,  Up: edit

A.7.3 Copy
----------

Copy fractal to clipboard. This is a platform-dependent operation that
may not have an analogue on your platform (e.g. there is no concept of
a clipboard under aalib).

   _Available as_: menu item


File: xaos.info,  Node: paste,  Prev: copy,  Up: edit

A.7.4 Paste
-----------

Paste fractal from clipboard. This is a platform-dependent operation
that may not have an analogue on your platform (e.g. there is no
concept of a clipboard under aalib).

   _Available as_: menu item


File: xaos.info,  Node: fractal,  Next: calc,  Prev: edit,  Up: menus

A.8 Fractal
===========

This menu contains all functions related to fractal parameters and
display; you can change things like the formula used, coloring modes,
seeds and much else.

* Menu:

* formula::	Formula
* mformula::	formulae
* incoloring::	Incoloring mode
* outcoloring::	Outcoloring mode
* plane::	Plane
* palettemenu::	Palette
* uimandelbrot::	Mandelbrot mode
* uiperturbation::	Perturbation
* uiview::	View
* initstate::	Reset to defaults
* tcolor::	True-color coloring modes


File: xaos.info,  Node: formula,  Next: uimandelbrot,  Up: fractal

A.8.1 Formula
-------------

 -- Function: formula keyword

   Set the current fractal formula. `keyword' should be one of the
following:
*'mandel*
     Standard Mandelbrot set. *Note mandel::.

*'mandel3*
     Mandelbrot set, power 3. *Note mandel3::.

*'mandel4*
     Mandelbrot set, power 4.

*'mandel5*
     Mandelbrot set, power 5.

*'mandel6*
     Mandelbrot set, power 6.

*'newton*
     Newton's approximation method. *Note newton::.

*'barnsley*
     First Barnsley's formula. *Note barnsley::.

*'octo*
     Fractint's octo. *Note octal::.

*'phoenix*
     Phoenix. *Note phoenix::.

*'magnet*
     Magnet. *Note magnet::.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: uimandelbrot,  Next: uiperturbation,  Prev: formula,  Up: fractal

A.8.2 Mandelbrot/Julia mode
---------------------------

Most fractals rendered by XaoS can be represented as Mandelbrot sets or
Julias.  Each point in the Mandelbrot set has its own Julia set. To
learn more about this correspondence, see the tutorial on the Julia set.

   This function switches between Mandelbrot and Julia representations.
When switching to Julia, you need to set the seed--a point selected
from the Mandelbrot set.

   If you run this function from the menu, you are prompted for the
Julia seed as a number. Often, this can be clumsy, and it would be
easier to specify a point with the mouse pointer. If you hit the `M'
key instead of using the menu, the current mouse position is used.

   Good seedpoints lie at the boundaries of the Mandelbrot set; other
seeds usually generate quite a boring fractal. You can also explore
various seeds at high speed using the Fast Julia mode. *Note
fastjulia::.

   Not all fractals have Julias, but XaoS can generate fake Julia sets
for those that do not, which use some Julia-like modification of the
formula; so this function is currently usable for all fractal types.

   _Available as_: menu item

 -- Function: julia bool

   This function is used to enable/disable julia mode in animation
files.

   _Available as_: command line option, command

 -- Function: juliaseed complex

   Select the current julia seed.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: uiperturbation,  Next: uiview,  Prev: uimandelbrot,  Up: fractal

A.8.3 Perturbation
------------------

Perturbation is a simple trick which changes the point at which orbits
start.  Traditionally zero is used, but other values can generate
interesting results too.

   On enabling this function from the menu, you will be asked for a
complex number specifying the perturbation. It is a toggle; selecting
it again resets the perturbation to zero without prompting.

   It can be used to specify a complex number representing a point on
the screen.  If you hit the `B' key instead of using the menu, the
current mouse position is used. This too is a toggle, so `B' again will
disable perturbation by setting it to zero.

   This function only has an effect for certain formulae (like the
Mandelbrot set</a>) and only then in <a uimandelbrot>Mandelbrot mode.
*Note mandel::.

   _Available as_: menu item

 -- Function: perturbation complex

   This is the scripting-language variation of the perturbation
function. Instead of toggling, you always specify the perturbation to
use. Use 0 0 to disable perturbation.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: bailout,  Next: fastjulia,  Prev: maxiter,  Up: calc

A.8.4 Bailout
-------------

Bailout is the value which is checked for each point of the orbit if
the point is far enough from the complex zero point in the current
iteration.  If the point is far enough, then the iteration immediately
stops and the starting point on the screen will be painted with a given
colour, depending on the fractal type and many other settings.

   For the Mandelbrot set this value is 4. Other fractal types usually
have the same bailout value. For most fractals many bailout values give
more or less similar output. E.g., for the second order Mandelbrot set
one can prove that the sequence |z| (z:=z^2+c) tends to infinity if and
only if |z|>2 for some element z of this sequence.  In XaoS program,
Bailout value is the square of this 2, i.e. you can change this to any
value greater than 2 for similar results.

   Other fractal types may use other bailout values. The default is 4
for each types.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command

 -- Function: bailout float


File: xaos.info,  Node: uiview,  Next: initstate,  Prev: uiperturbation,  Up: fractal

A.8.5 View
----------

Set your current viewpoint in the fractal. This function is useful when
you have found some interesting coordinates somewhere (on a web page,
perhaps) and you want to see that position in XaoS.

   In the dialog you will be asked for the _center_, _radius_ and
_angle_ of the image.

   The center specifies the point which is displayed at the center of
the screen.  The radius is the radius of a circle around this point;
XaoS will size the image so that this circle only just fits on the
screen. The angle gives the rotation of the image in degrees.

   People specify fractal coordinates in many ways. Some people use the
coordinates of the upper-left and lower-right visible points,
specifying the coordinates as four numbers x1, y1, x2, y2.  To set the
same viewpoint in XaoS, set the real portion of the center to
(x1+x2)/2, the imaginary part of center to (y1+y2)/2, and the radius to
the greater of x2-x1 and y2-y1.

   Other programs use a zoom factor instead of a radius. For these, you
can set the radius to 2/zoom.

   _Available as_: menu item

 -- Function: view float float float float

   This function is used to set the visible area of fractal in
animation files.  It doesn't let let you specify the angle, (for that,
see the separate function `angle'), but lets you specify an ellipse
instead of a circle. You can specify both a real and an imaginary
radius, so you have better control over the area that will be visible.
XaoS will size the image so that the ellipse only just fits on the
screen.

   _Available as_: command line option, command

 -- Function: angle float

   Set the rotation angle in degrees. By default this causes
recalculation of the screen. You can enable the fast rotation mode,
which lets you rotate the screen without recalculation; but it slows
down other things, so don't forget to disable it later.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: initstate,  Next: plane,  Prev: uiview,  Up: fractal

A.8.6 Reset to defaults
-----------------------

 -- Function: initstate

   This function resets most of XaoS's values to their defaults. It is
useful when you get lost and want to start from the beginning. It
should also be used as the first command of every animation file, to
ensure that the file is always played with the same settings in effect.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: plane,  Next: incoloring,  Prev: initstate,  Up: fractal

A.8.7 Plane
-----------

 -- Function: plane integer

   All fractals displayed by XaoS are functions with a complex
parameter.  They can be be displayed in the normal complex plane where
the `x' coordinate is the real part of the number and the `y' is
imaginary; but they can also be displayed differently:
*mu*
     Normal complex plane (default)

*1/mu*
     Inversion--infinity is at 0 and 0 is at infinity.

*1/(mu+0.25)*
     Similar to inversion, but moves the center outside the Mandelbrot
     set, so it looks parabolic.

*lambda plane, 1/lambda, 1/lambda-1*
     Lambda plane and its inversion, and with a different center.

*1/(mu-1.40115)*
     A very interesting mode for the Mandelbrot set, this makes small
     things large, for easier browsing of the set's details.
   The tutorial about planes has some examples.

   In the scripting language, the planes are numbered as follows:

*0*
     mu

*1*
     1/mu

*2*
     1/(mu+0.25)

*3*
     lambda

*4*
     1/lambda

*5*
     1/(lambda-1)

*6*
     1/(mu-1.40115)

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: incoloring,  Next: outcoloring,  Prev: plane,  Up: fractal

A.8.8 Inside coloring mode
--------------------------

 -- Function: incoloring integer

   Areas inside the set are usually filled in black, but this is only a
convention; you could color them in differently to make the fractal
look more interesting.  The only method available to make areas inside
the set visible is to display the value of the latest orbit as the
value of each pixel.

   The tutorial on incoloring has more information and examples.

   XaoS has many different ways to show that value. The cryptic names
of the modes are mathematical formulae, where _real_ means the real
part of the latest orbit, and _imag_ means the imaginary part. _zmag_
uses the magnitude of the value. The _Decomposition-like_ method uses
the angle of the orbit. Also, truecolor incoloring modes are available,
that display one value in each of the red, blue and green color planes
(or, for some modes, in each of the hue, saturation and value planes).

   In the scripting language, the incoloring mode is specified by one
of the following integers:

*0*
     0 (default)

*1*
     zmag

*2*
     Decomposition-like

*3*
     real/imag

*4*
     abs(abs(c)-abs(r))

*5*
     cos(mag)

*6*
     mag*cos(real^2)

*7*
     sin(real^2-imag^2)

*8*
     atan(real*imag*creal*cimag)

*9*
     squares

*10*
     Truecolor. To set exact parameters for truecolor coloring use the
     `tcolor' command.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: outcoloring,  Next: tcolor,  Prev: incoloring,  Up: fractal

A.8.9 Outside coloring mode
---------------------------

 -- Function: outcoloring integer

   Outcoloring modes are similar to incoloring modes, but indicate how
to display the areas outside the set instead. As with incoloring modes,
the value of the latest orbit can be used to determine the color of
each pixel, but the default is to use the number of iterations needed
for the value at that point to become recognisably divergent as the
color.

   The tutorial on outcoloring has more information and examples.

   The cryptic names of the modes are mathematical formulae, where
_iter_ means the number of iterations required for the value to become
recognisably divergent, _real_ means the real part of the latest orbit,
and _imag_ means the imaginary part. _binary decomposition_ uses a
different color when the imaginary part of the orbit is lower than
zero, and _smooth_ attempts to remove stripes and discontinuities.
Also, truecolor outcoloring modes are available, that display one value
in each of the red, blue and green color planes (or, for some modes, in
each of the hue, saturation and value planes).

   In the scripting language, the outcoloring mode is specified by one
of the following integers:

*0*
     iter (default)

*1*
     iter+real

*2*
     iter+imag

*3*
     iter+real/imag

*4*
     iter+real+imag+real/imag

*5*
     binary decomposition

*6*
     biomorphs

*7*
     potential

*8*
     color decomposition

*9*
     smooth

*10*
     True-color outcoloring mode. To set exact parameters for truecolor
     coloring use `outtcoloring'. *Note tcolor::.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: tcolor,  Prev: outcoloring,  Up: fractal

A.8.10 Truecolor coloring mode
------------------------------

 -- Function: intcoloring integer

 -- Function: outtcoloring integer

   Truecolor coloring modes are similar to incolor and outcolor
coloring modes; but instead of using a palette, they directly calculate
the red, green and blue components of the color.  This lets you display
more parameters at once, and produces interesting and often attractive
results. On 8bpp displays you need to enable the palette emulator
filter first to see anything, amd the quality won't be so good, as far
fewer colors are available per parameter.

   The tutorial on truecolor coloring modes has more information and
examples.

   The cryptic names of the modes are always three mathematical
formulae (one for each color component), where _real_ means the real
part of the latest orbit, and _imag_ means the imaginary part.

   To enable inside/outside truecolor coloring mode in the scripting
language, set `incoloring'/`outcoloring' value to 10 (truecolor coloring
mode) before (or after) calling `intcoloring' or `outtcoloring'.

   In the scripting language, the coloring mode is specified by one of
the following integers:

*0*
     black

*1*
     re*im sin(re^2) angle

*2*
     sin(re) sin(im) sin(square)

*3*
     hsv

*4*
     hsv2

*5*
     cos(re^c) cos(im^2) cos(square)

*6*
     abs(re^2) abs(im^2) abs(square)

*7*
     re*im re*re im*im

*8*
     abs(im*cim) abs(re*cre) abs(re*cim)

*9*
     abs(re*im-csqr) abs(re^2-csqr) abs(im^2-csqr)

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: calc,  Next: mfilter,  Prev: fractal,  Up: menus

A.9 Calculation
===============

This menu contains functions that control calculation parameters such as
the maximum iteration count and periodicity checking.

* Menu:

* range::	Solid guessing
* dynamic::	Dynamic resolution
* periodicity::	Periodicity checking
* maxiter::	Iterations
* bailout::	Bailout
* fastjulia::	Fast Julia mode
* dynamic::	Dynamic resolution
* rotate::	Rotation


File: xaos.info,  Node: range,  Next: periodicity,  Up: calc

A.9.1 Solid guessing range
--------------------------

 -- Function: range integer

   XaoS has a solid guessing optimization: if all corners of a
rectangle have the same color, it assumes that the whole rectangle is a
solid colored block, and doesn't calculate points inside the rectangle.
This optimization saves lots of calculation, but sometimes introduces
errors. This value alters the maximum size of the rectangle that can be
guessed at one time. The default value is 3; use 0 to disable the
optimization.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: periodicity,  Next: maxiter,  Prev: range,  Up: calc

A.9.2 Periodicity checking
--------------------------

 -- Function: periodicity bool

   Periodicity checking is one way to speed up the calculation. Areas
inside the set always need `maxiter' iterations to determine that the
point is probably inside the set (while it is rare for areas outside to
need anywhere near that much). Often the orbital trajectory falls into a
periodic, repeating cycle; if that can be detected, the calculation can
be stopped early, as there's no way that the orbit can ever leave the
cycle again (hence it cannot diverge, hence the point must be inside
the set).

   Implementating this method efficiently is quite problematic. It
slows down the cases where cycles are not found, because cycle-checking
is quite hard work and has to take place for all points, even those
that don't become cyclic.  Because of the inexactness of floating-point
calculations, the cycles are never exact, so you need to use an error
value. Higher error values mean that cycles will be detected sooner,
while lower error values increase the exactness of the calculation.
Higher values can introduce serious errors, especially at the front of
the Mandelbrot set. XaoS detects this automatically and corrects for it
in most cases, but sometimes it might be wrong. Also, other
optimizations in XaoS (such as boundary tracing) don't give this method
much of a chance to run, since areas inside the set are usually not
calculated at all.

   That's why the advantages of this optimization are questionable. You
should probably experiment with enabling and disabling it. Sometimes
XaoS is faster with this enabled, sometimes when disabled. Also, this
method works only when incoloring methods are disabled, and only for
some fractal types (some fractal types, e.g. newton, don't have any
concept of an area `inside the set' at all.)

   The tutorial chapter "Escape time fractals" has more information on
fractal calculation in XaoS, and there is a lengthy section in the
hacker's manual (`xaosdev.texinfo') devoted to the subject.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: maxiter,  Next: bailout,  Prev: periodicity,  Up: calc

A.9.3 Iterations
----------------

 -- Function: maxiter integer

   When the fractal set is calculated, a orbital trajectory is examined
for each point. If the orbit diverges to infinity, the point is outside
the set.  Otherwise, the point is inside the set. For exact
calculations, you need to know the entire orbital trajectory, which is
infinitely long for areas inside the set, so fractals cannot be
calculated exactly. By default, XaoS calculates at most 170 positions
(iterations) and then gives up; if the point is still inside the
bail-out value, it guesses that the point is inside the set.

   When zoomed into a detailed area, especially one close to the set
boundary, this value could become too low, and the fractal will become
boring.  You might try increasing this value if you want to get the
image interesting again; but this necessarily slows down the
calculation at the same time.

   The tutorial chapter "Escape time fractals" has more information on
fractal calculation in XaoS, and there is a lengthy section in the
hacker's manual (`xaosdev.texinfo') devoted to the subject.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: fastjulia,  Next: dynamic,  Prev: bailout,  Up: calc

A.9.4 Fast Julia mode
---------------------

 -- Function: fastjulia bool

   By default, changing the seed for the Julia set requires
recalculation of the image (which is quite slow). It's a nice effect to
change the seed smoothly and show the Julia set morphing as the seed
changes. XaoS has a special algorithm which can calculate such
morphings in realtime. It is very inexact, but it is good enough for a
fast preview.

   If you want to select a good seedpoint, enable fast Julia mode and
find a nice place by dragging with the first mouse button depressed;
then change to the Julia mode to see the exact image.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: dynamic,  Next: rotate,  Prev: fastjulia,  Up: calc

A.10 Dynamic resolution
=======================

 -- Function: fastmode keyword

   XaoS performs many optimizations, but fairly often this is not
enough. In order to keep a high framerate, XaoS automatically lowers
the resolution of the image, increasing it when there is time for more
calculation. This feature is enabled by default when animating, but you
might also like to enable it for new images (which makes the image
`come into focus' when it is recalculated from scratch for whatever
reason), or disable it completely if you don't like it.

   In the scripting languge, the keyword should be one of the following:
*`'never'*
     Disable dynamic resolution

*`'animate'*
     Use only for animations (default)

*`'new'*
     Use also for new images


File: xaos.info,  Node: rotate,  Prev: dynamic,  Up: calc

A.11 Image rotation
===================

XaoS has support for rotation of the image to any angle. By default,
changing the angle requires recalculation of the whole screen, but when
_fast rotation mode_ is enabled, the angle can be changed smoothly.  In
this mode XaoS calculates a larger non-rotated image and rotates it when
needed, so it increases memory requirements and slows XaoS down; hence,
it should be disabled when rotation is not being used.

   The user interface provides two rotation modes--_rotate by mouse_
which allows the angle to be changed by dragging with the first mouse
button depressed, and _continuous rotation mode_, where the image is
rotated clockwise continuously, and the arrow keys can be used to change
the rotiation speed.

 -- Function: fastrotate bool

   This function is used to enable and disable fast rotation mode.
_Available as_: command line option, command

A.11.1 Automatic rotation
-------------------------

 -- Function: autorotate bool

   Use this function to enable continuous rotation. In the scripting
language you can also use `morphangle' to get an outwardly similar but
more controllable effect.

 -- Function: rotationspeed float

   Specify the speed of continuous rotation, in degrees per second.
Negative values are allowed and rotate anticlockwise.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: mfilter,  Next: ui,  Prev: calc,  Up: menus

A.12 Filters
============

Filters are a post-calculation effect applied to the resulting image.
They can do things like motion blurring, edge detection, emulation of
palettes or truecolor on displays that can't handle them, and such
things. There is a tutorial chapter about them.

* Menu:

* filter::	Filter command
* edge::	Edge detection
* edge2::	Edge detection2
* starfield::	Starfield
* stereogram::	Random dot stereogram
* interlace::	Interlace filter
* blur::	Motion blur
* emboss::	Emboss
* palettef::	Palette emulator
* anti::	Antialiasing
* truecolor::	Truecolor emulator


File: xaos.info,  Node: filter,  Next: edge,  Up: mfilter

A.12.1 Filter command
---------------------

 -- Function: filter keyword bool

   This command is used to enable or disable filters. *Note mfilter::.
The _keyword_ specifies the filter to change, and should be one of the
following:

*`'edge'*
     Edge detection

*`'edge2'*
     Edge detection2

*`'starfield'*
     Starfield

*`'stereogram'*
     Random dot stereogram

*`'interlace'*
     Interlace filter

*`'blur'*
     Motion blur

*`'emboss'*
     Emboss

*`'palette'*
     Palette emulator

*`'anti'*
     Antialiasing

*`'truecolor'*
     Truecolor

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: edge,  Next: edge2,  Prev: filter,  Up: mfilter

A.12.2 Edge detection
---------------------

This filter is a standard edge detection algorithm; solid areas are
filled in black. Some fractals look very interesting with this filter
(and some areas of some fractals just look like noise). This version of
the filter produces relatively wide lines, so is useful at higher
resolutions. The filter edge detection2 makes thinner lines, for the
low resolution modes.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: edge2,  Next: starfield,  Prev: edge,  Up: mfilter

A.12.3 Edge detection2
----------------------

This filter is a standard edge detection algorithm; solid areas are
filled in black. Some fractals look very interesting with this filter
(and some areas of some fractals just look like noise). This version of
the filter produces relatively tight lines, so is useful at lower
resolutions. The filter edge detection makes thinner lines, for the
high resolution modes.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: starfield,  Next: stereogram,  Prev: edge2,  Up: mfilter

A.12.4 Starfield
----------------

The starfield filter generates random stars whose density depends on the
iteration count. Choose your favorite spiral fractal and enable this
filter to get a Grand Design spiral galaxy :)

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: stereogram,  Next: interlace,  Prev: starfield,  Up: mfilter

A.12.5 Random dot stereogram
----------------------------

Fractal images are good as a base for random dot stereograms. In case
you don't know what these are, please point your browser to Google or
another search engine and find some articles about such images, because
learning to read such images takes some effort. They make it possible
to generate three dimensional images on a normal monitor without any
additional hardware, by exploiting bugs in the human brain (although
you need two working eyes, and some people never learn to see them;
they can simply ignore this feature).

   XaoS is able to generate these images in animations, so you may use
all normal XaoS functions (except palette changing and palette rotation,
which makes no sense applied to a stereogram). To make the animation yet
more exciting, XaoS emulates "falling" into the set; while you zoom in,
your distance from the set drops and drops--but you never hit it; when
the set reaches the level of your monitor, the distance is changed
again so you are far away.

   To make this work right, XaoS needs to know the _exact size of your
monitor_. Because most platforms have no way to determine this, you
need to use _command line options_ to tune it. If it's not set or is
wrong, the stereograms will probably be impossible to see (if your
monitor is too big or resolution too low), or the images will seem to
be shallow (if your monitor is too small or resolution too high).

   By default XaoS expects my 15" monitor (29.0cm x 21.5 cm). Another
cause of problems is the virtual screen supported by some windowed
environments (like some X servers) that makes a program think that the
resolution is higher than it actually is, and you see only part of this
extra-large screen.

   The worst thing you could possibly do is to run full-screen XaoS in
some graphical windowing system (OS/2 on top of Windows or Wine on top
of Linux, perhaps) where XaoS can't tell the real size of its window at
all. In such cases, it's normally better (not to mention faster) to run
XaoS natively, rather than under such an emulation layer.

   The following command line options are provided to specify sizes:

*`-screenwidth', `-screenheight'*
     Lets you specify the size of your screen in centimeters. Note that
     you need to specify the size of the visible image on the monitor,
     not the size with edge borders, or the size of the tube. The
     simplistic `my monitor is 17", just turn 17" into centimeters'
     doesn't work; that 17" is a marketing figure and has only a vague
     connection to reality. Get out a ruler and measure it.

*`-pixelwidth', `-pixelheight'*
     Lets you specify the exact size of a single pixel, if XaoS cannot
     determine this for itself from your screen size.

   These options are used by some other parts of XaoS as well, so you
should use them even when you don't want to see stereograms. You should
probably write a small starting script (or alias, or shortcut; whatever
your environment uses) that passes the correct parameters to XaoS.

   If the window is _smaller than 8cm in any direction_, you will
probably be unable to see anything; make the window bigger.

   The correct way to see XaoS stereograms is:
*1*
     Start XaoS with options specifying the exact size of your screen
     or one pixel on it

*2*
     Sit 60cm away from monitor

*3*
     If you use a windowed environment, resize XaoS's window to make it
     wider than, say, 15 cm.

*4*
     Enable the filter (by pressing `E')

*5*
     focus on a point far away from the monitor (try to use your own
     reflection, if your monitor's not antireflective); the random
     blurring should eventually fall into the pattern of a Mandelbrot
     set.

*6*
     Carefully use your mouse to zoom into interesting areas (it is
     easy to lose concentration when you are not trained; but you can
     use the autopilot...)

*7*
     Enjoy animation :)

   If you still can't see the stereograms, it could be that the
fractal, or your eye, is deformed. A deformed fractal can be caused by
your specifying your monitor size wrongly. Visual problems that damage
depth perception, as well as problems like astigmatism, can make it
impossible to see stereograms at all.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: interlace,  Next: blur,  Prev: stereogram,  Up: mfilter

A.12.6 Interlace filter
-----------------------

The interlace filter halves the horizontal resolution, and in each
frame alternates between drawing only the even and only the odd lines.
This speeds up the calculation, and in higher resolutions produces a
motion-blur-like effect.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: blur,  Next: emboss,  Prev: interlace,  Up: mfilter

A.12.7 Motion blur
------------------

Motion blur mixes the current frame with previous ones to produce a
motion-blur effect. It might be rather slow in 16bpp truecolor modes.
The best results can probably be seen in 8bpp modes, so you might want
to enable the palette filter first.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: emboss,  Next: palettef,  Prev: blur,  Up: mfilter

A.12.8 Emboss
-------------

This is a standard emboss filter, as seen in programs such as the GIMP
or Photoshop. It produces especially nice results with the smooth
outcoloring mode. *Note outcoloring::.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: palettef,  Next: anti,  Prev: emboss,  Up: mfilter

A.12.9 Palette emulator
-----------------------

XaoS can work in either palette or truecolor mode. Both modes have
advantages and disadvantages. Palette mode allows effects such as
palette rotation, while truecolor mode allows smoother incoloring and
outcoloring modes and the truecolor coloring modes. If your display is
truecolor, you can enable this filter to get palette emulation (albeit
not as cheaply as in a real paletted mode).

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: anti,  Next: truecolor,  Prev: palettef,  Up: mfilter

A.12.10 Antialiasing
--------------------

Antialiasing is a technique to increase image quality by eliminating
jagged edges. XaoS calculates four values for each pixel (on the
subpixel boundaries) and uses the average of them for the pixel value.

   This filter slows XaoS down a _lot_ and greatly increases memory
requirements. It is useful mainly when you want to save images and want
to make them look as nice as possible. Antialiasing also helps a lot
when you want to encode JPEG or MPEG files; they are much shorter if
antialiased (MPEG and JPEG hate jagged edges).

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: truecolor,  Prev: anti,  Up: mfilter

A.12.11 Truecolor emulator
--------------------------

XaoS can work in either palette or truecolor mode. Both modes have
advantages and disadvantages. Palette mode allows effects such as
palette rotation, while truecolor mode allows smoother incoloring and
outcoloring modes and the truecolor coloring modes. If your display is
8bpp, you can enable this filter to get truecolor emulation (but,
obviously, not with as many colors as a real truecolor display).

   More information about filters

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: ui,  Next: misc,  Prev: mfilter,  Up: menus

A.13 UI
=======

This menu contains functions to control the user interface layer of
XaoS: zooming speed, the autopilot, realtime status information, and so
on.

* Menu:

* speed::	Zooming speed
* letterspersec::	Letters per second
* autopilot::	Autopilot
* recalculate::	Recalculate
* interrupt::	Interrupt
* nogui::	Disable XaoS's builtin GUI
* status::	Status
* ministatus::	Ministatus


File: xaos.info,  Node: speed,  Next: letterspersec,  Up: ui

A.13.1 Zooming speed
--------------------

 -- Function: speed float

   Change zooming speed, where 1 is the default, 2 means twice as fast,
and so on.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command

   In the scripting language you can use the following functions for
better control:

 -- Function: maxstep float

   Selects the zooming/unzooming speed. The parameter specifies how
much of the range will be removed each twentieth of a second; 0 means
nothing, 1 means everything (the parameter obviously has to be less
than 1).  Higher values mean faster zooming.

   _Available as_: command

 -- Function: speedup float
   When zooming/unzooming, every twentieth of a second the `speedup'
value is added to the current step until `maxstep' is reached.  So this
value selects the rate at which zooming stops and starts.  Both these
functions are more for internal use of XaoS then for manually written
scripts, but they could come in useful nonetheless.

   _Available as_: command


File: xaos.info,  Node: letterspersec,  Next: autopilot,  Prev: speed,  Up: ui

A.13.2 Letters per second
-------------------------

 -- Function: letterspersec integer

   Speed of subtitles for the `textsleep' function.  The user can set
this value to suit; it can also be changed with the left and right
arrow keys during animation replay.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: autopilot,  Next: recalculate,  Prev: letterspersec,  Up: ui

A.13.3 Autopilot
----------------

 -- Function: autopilot bool

   To make XaoS yet more impressive, we made a special autopilot mode
that automatically drives into interesting boundaries of the set; you
should press `A', play your favorite music, drink coffee and relax. I
never tried this but it should be really relaxing! Many pictures in the
XaoS gallery were discovered using the autopilot.

   The autopilot also has some additional features. It backtracks if the
zoomed picture is not interesting anymore, and can detect when it's
zoomed into really a boring part of the fractal or reached the limit of
floating point arithmetic on the platform, and restart zooming from the
top.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: recalculate,  Next: interrupt,  Prev: autopilot,  Up: ui

A.13.4 Recalculate
------------------

 -- Function: recalculate

   Recalculate current fractal. This should be used when the fractal on
the screen is strange because of error propagation caused by solid
guessing. *Note range::.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: interrupt,  Next: nogui,  Prev: recalculate,  Up: ui

A.13.5 Interrupt
----------------

 -- Function: interrupt

   Interrupt current calculation.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: nogui,  Next: status,  Prev: interrupt,  Up: ui

A.13.6 Disable XaoS's builtin GUI
---------------------------------

 -- Function: nogui bool

   Disable XaoS menus and dialogs. This function should be used by
external GUI programs; these manipulate XaoS via a pipe, so the
internal GUI should be disabled at the same time. See the hacker's
manual (`xaosdev.texinfo') for more details.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: status,  Next: ministatus,  Prev: nogui,  Up: ui

A.13.7 Status
-------------

 -- Function: status bool

   Enable/disable status information. This displays some useful
information about the current fractal, such as viewpoint etc. (In
low-resolution modes it also almost completely obscures the current
fractal...)

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: ministatus,  Prev: status,  Up: ui

A.13.8 Ministatus
-----------------

 -- Function: ministatus bool

   Enable/disable status line. This contains basic information such as
how much you are zoomed and the framerate.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: misc,  Next: helpmenu,  Prev: ui,  Up: menus

A.14 Misc
=========

Miscellaneous functions.

* Menu:

* command::	Command
* renderanim::	Render animation
* clearscreen::	Clear screen
* display::	Display fractal
* text::	Display text
* color::	Color
* xtextpos::	Horizontal text position
* ytextpos::	Vertical text position
* textposition::	Text position
* message::	Message


File: xaos.info,  Node: command,  Next: renderanim,  Up: misc

A.14.1 Command
--------------

You can invoke all XaoS functions using a simple command language
reminiscent of Scheme. This option lets you run a single command. If
you want to run more than one, you might want to use an XaoS animation
file instead; they are written in the same language.

   _Available as_: menu item


File: xaos.info,  Node: renderanim,  Next: clearscreen,  Prev: command,  Up: misc

A.14.2 Render animation
-----------------------

Render an animation to image files. See How to encode MPEG files for
more information.

   _Available as_: menu item,


File: xaos.info,  Node: clearscreen,  Next: display,  Prev: renderanim,  Up: misc

A.14.3 Clear screen
-------------------

 -- Function: clearscreen

   Clear the screen. To display the fractal again, use `display'. *Note
display::.  This function is mainly useful in tutorials and similar
animations.

   _Available as_: menu item, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: display,  Next: text,  Prev: clearscreen,  Up: misc

A.14.4 Display fractal
----------------------

 -- Function: display

   Display fractal. This functions reverses the effect of the
`clearscreen', line drawing and text output functions.

   _Available as_: menu item, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: text,  Next: color,  Prev: display,  Up: misc

A.14.5 Display text
-------------------

 -- Function: text string

   Display the given text on the screen. This function is mainly useful
in tutorials.  Text should be cleared by printing lots of spaces, or
using the `clearscreen'</a> or <a display>`display' functions. You
might also want to use the `textposition' function to select the part
of the screen to display the text on.

   To wait for the user to read the text, you can use the `textsleep'
function.

   Example:

     (clearscreen)
     (textposition 'center 'middle)
     (text "Welcome into my animation")
     (textsleep)
     (display)

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: color,  Next: textposition,  Prev: text,  Up: misc

A.14.6 Color
------------

 -- Function: color keyword

   Change text and line color. _keyword_ should be one of `'white',
`'black' and `'red'.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: textposition,  Next: message,  Prev: color,  Up: misc

A.14.7 Text position
--------------------

 -- Function: textposition keyword keyword

   Select text position. The first keyword specifies the horizontal
position, the second the vertical position. The horizontal position
should be one of `'left', `'center', and `'right'.  The vertical should
be one of `'top', `'middle', and `'bottom'.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: message,  Prev: textposition,  Up: misc

A.14.8 Message
--------------

 -- Function: message string

   This function is almost identical to the `text' function, except
that it uses message catalogs in the `catalog' directory to translate
messages into other languages. It should be used only in the
multi-lingual XaoS tutorials.

   _Available as_: command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: helpmenu,  Next: xtextpos,  Prev: misc,  Up: menus

A.15 Help
=========

This menu contains help and tutorials.


File: xaos.info,  Node: xtextpos,  Next: ytextpos,  Prev: helpmenu,  Up: menus

A.16 Horizontal text position
=============================

Select the horizontal position used to display text. *Note text::.  It
can be placed at the left, in the center or at the right.


File: xaos.info,  Node: ytextpos,  Next: mformula,  Prev: xtextpos,  Up: menus

A.17 Vertical text position
===========================

Select the vertical position used to display text. *Note text::. It can
be placed at the top, in the middle or at the bottom of the screen.


File: xaos.info,  Node: mformula,  Next: palettemenu,  Prev: ytextpos,  Up: menus

A.18 formulae
=============

Each escape time fractal has its own formula. XaoS supports the
following formulae:

* Menu:

* mandel::	Mandelbrot
* mandel3::	Mandelbrot^3
* octal::	Octal
* newton::	Newton
* barnsley::	Barnsley1
* phoenix::	Phoenix
* magnet::	Magnet


File: xaos.info,  Node: mandel,  Next: mandel3,  Up: mformula

A.18.1 Mandelbrot
-----------------

The Mandelbrot set is the most famous escape time fractal ever. It has
the simple formula z=z^2+c. See the tutorial chapter.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: mandel3,  Next: octal,  Prev: mandel,  Up: mformula

A.18.2 Mandelbrot^3--Mandelbrot^6 and Mandelbrot^9
--------------------------------------------------

The Mandelbrot^3 fractal is a simple modification of the standard
Mandelbrot set formula, using z=z^3+c instead of z=z^2+c.

   Other derivations of the Mandelbrot set (Mandelbrot^4 and so on) use
even higher powers. See the tutorial chapter.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: octal,  Next: newton,  Prev: mandel3,  Up: mformula

A.18.3 Octal
------------

This is a less well-known fractal that Thomas discovered in Fractint.
It has an interesting shape when displayed in the alternative planes.
*Note plane::. See the tutorial chapter.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: newton,  Next: barnsley,  Prev: octal,  Up: mformula

A.18.4 Newton
-------------

This is Newton's approximation method for finding the roots of a
polynomial. It uses the polynomial x^3=1 and counts the number of
iterations needed to reach the approximate value of the root. See the
tutorial chapter.

   This fractal doesn't have Julia sets, but XaoS is able to generate
Julia-like sets which are also very interesting (they are sometimes
called "Nova formulae").

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: barnsley,  Next: phoenix,  Prev: newton,  Up: mformula

A.18.5 Barnsley1
----------------

This is a formula by Michael Barnsley. It produces very nice
crystalline Julia sets. See the tutorial chapter.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: phoenix,  Next: magnet,  Prev: barnsley,  Up: mformula

A.18.6 Phoenix
--------------

This formula produces very nice Julia sets.  See the tutorial chapter.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: magnet,  Prev: phoenix,  Up: mformula

A.18.7 Magnet
-------------

This is a formula that comes from theoretical physics.  It is derived
from the study of theoretical lattices in the context of magnetic
renormalization transformations.  See the tutorial chapter.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option


File: xaos.info,  Node: palettemenu,  Prev: mformula,  Up: menus

A.19 Palette
============

This menu contains functions to change the palette the fractal is
displayed with.

* Menu:

* defpalette::	Default palette
* randompalette::	Random palette
* palette::	Custom palette
* cycling::	Color cycling
* shiftpalette::	Shift palette


File: xaos.info,  Node: defpalette,  Next: randompalette,  Up: palettemenu

A.19.1 Default palette
----------------------

 -- Function: defaultpalette number

   Create a default palette. In the scripting language, `number'
specifies how much the palette is shifted by.

   Note that changing the palette in truecolor modes forces
recalculation of the whole screen. To avoid this, you can enable the
palette emulation filter first.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: randompalette,  Next: palette,  Prev: defpalette,  Up: palettemenu

A.19.2 Random palette
---------------------

 -- Function: randompalette

   Create a random palette. XaoS will automatically pick one of its
palette-generation algorithms and create one.

   Note that changing the palette in truecolor modes forces
recalculation of the whole screen. To avoid this, you can enable the
palette emulation filter first.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: palette,  Next: cycling,  Prev: randompalette,  Up: palettemenu

A.19.3 Custom palette
---------------------

 -- Function: palette integer integer integer

   A custom palette lets you re-create some of the random palettes. The
first value specifies the algorithm, which should currently be one of
the following:
*0*
     Default palette

*1*
     Black to color gradient

*2*
     Black to color to white gradient

*3*
     Cubistic-like algorithm.
   The seed specifies a random seed for the palette; different seeds
generate different palettes. The last value is the amount by which the
palette is shifted.

   Note that changing the palette in the truecolor modes forces
recalculation of the whole screen. To avoid this, you can enable the
palette emulation filter first.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: cycling,  Next: shiftpalette,  Prev: palette,  Up: palettemenu

A.19.4 Color cycling
--------------------

 -- Function: cycling bool

   Color cycling is an old and simple effect to animate fractals. The
Mandelbrot set looks particularly nice when color-cycled. On truecolor
displays, color cycling fails to initialize (since those displays don't
have a palette).  You can enable palette emulation filter to make it
possible.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command

   In the user interface, colors can also be cycled in the opposite
direction with the "_Reversed color cycling_" function.

   To control the cycling speed, you coan use arrow keys or the "_Color
cycling speed_" function.

   _Available as_: menu item

 -- Function: cyclingspeed integer

   The parameter specifies the number of skips per second. It can be
negative to cycle in the opposite direction.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: shiftpalette,  Prev: cycling,  Up: palettemenu

A.19.5 Shift palette
--------------------

 -- Function: shiftpalette integer

   Shift palette by the specified number of cells. This can be used to
tune the palette's position on the fractal. You can also use the _Shift
one forward_ and _Shift one backward_ functions for fine-tuning. Note
that shifted and rotated palettes could look different on different
displays (because they may have different palette sizes).

   Shifting the palette on truecolor displays causes a recalculation of
the screen.  To avoid this, you could use palette emulation filter.
*Note palettef::.

   _Available as_: menu item, command line option, command


File: xaos.info,  Node: about,  Next: support,  Prev: menus,  Up: Top

Függelék: B About XaoS
************************

Függelék: C Credits
*********************

(alphabetically)
*Lucio Henrique de Araujo (lucio.matema@gmail.com)*
     Brazilian/Portuguese translation

*Samuel Bizien (samuel@bizien.info)*
     Beryl fractal

*Eric Courteau (ecourteau@cplus.fr)*
     francais.cat (translation of tutorials)

*Jean-Pierre Demailly (Jean-Pierre.Demailly@ujf-grenoble.fr)*
     Updates for French translation

*Radek Doulik (rodo@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz)*
     TK interface, windowid patches

*Martin Dozsa (madsoft@centrum.cz)*
     cs.po (Czech translation of menus)

*Arpad Fekete (Fekete.Arpad.2@stud.u-szeged.hu)*
     Some new fractals, and the 'More formulae' menu

*Zelia Maria Horta Garcia (zeliagarcia@seed.pr.gov.br)*
     Brazilian/Portuguese translation

*Tim Goodwin (tgoodwin@cygnus.co.uk)*
     english.cat corrections

*Ben Hines*
     autoconf suggestions, Mac OS X port

*Jan Hubicka (jh@ucw.cz)*
     Zooming routines, ugly interface, palettes, drivers, autopilot,
     filters, documentation, tutorials etc.

*Jens Kilian (jjk@acm.org)*
     BeOS driver, deutsch.cat

*Thomas A. K. Kjaer (takjaer@imv.aau.dk)*
     OS/2 ports (320x200 graphics and AA-lib)

*Zoltan Kovacs (kovzol@math.u-szeged.hu)*
     Internationalization, Hungarian translations, finalizing version
     3.1, bug fixes, web design, current maintainer

*Zsigmond Kovacs (kovzsi@gmail.com)*
     Fractal examples

*J.B. Langston III (jb-langston@austin.rr.com)*
     Native Mac OS X port (from version 3.2.2); web redesign;
     co-maintainer

*Andreas Madritsch (amadritsch@datacomm.ch)*
     New fractal types, bailout, many fixes

*Mateusz Malczak (xaos@malczak.info)*
     User formula evaluation library

*Giorgio Marazzi (gmarazzi@vtr.net)*
     Improvements and fixes for espanhol.cat

*Thomas Marsh (thomas.marsh2@gmail.com)*
     First zoomer, formulae, planes, X11 driver, inversions, many ideas

*Dominic Mazzoni (dmazzoni@cs.cmu.edu)*
     Macintosh port (version 2.0)

*David Meleedy*
     Grammatical and spelling fixed version of `xaos.6'

*Paul Nasca (zynaddsubfx@yahoo.com)*
     Ministatus improvement

*Nix (nix@esperi.demon.co.uk)*
     Grammatical and spelling fixed version of `xaos.hlp' and other
     files

*Terje Pedersen (terjepe@login.eunet.no)*
     Amiga port

*Cesar Perez (oroz@users.sourceforge.net)*
     Spanish translations

*Fabrice Premel (premelfa@etu.utc.fr)*
     Periodicity checking

*Jan Olderdissen (jan@olderdissen.com)*
     Win32 port

*Ilinca Sitaru (ilinca.sitaru@gmail.com)*
     Romanian translation

*Daniel Skarda*
     Fractal examples

*Andrew Stone (Stone Design - www.stone.com)*
     Videator Support, Cocoa improvements, performance mode, bug fixes

*Marton Torok (marton.torok@gmail.com)*
     Small fixes for pipes

*Pavel Tzekov (paveltz@csoft.bg)*
     Win32 support

*Charles Vidal*
     Tcl/Tk interface

*Tapio K. Vocaldo (taps@rmx.com)*
     Macintosh port

*Tormod Volden*
     Fixes for X11 driver to improve compatability with Xorg,
     XScreenSaver, Beryl and Compiz

*Philippe Wautelet (p.wautelet@fractalzone.be)*
     Bug fixes for version 3.1.1, French translation, gcc 4.0 fixes

*Sergio Zanchetta*
     Italian translation

C.0.1 Included Software
-----------------------

XaoS uses the following libraries. These libraries may be included with
some binary distributions of XaoS.

   _gettext 0.17_ Website: `http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/'
Copyright (C) 1995-1997, 2000-2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
(http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) This is free software: you are free
to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by law.

   _GNU Scientific Library 1.11_ Website:
`http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/' Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 The GSL Team.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
(http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) This is free software: you are free
to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by law.

   _libpng 1.2.25_ Website: `http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html'
Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Glenn Randers-Pehrson Copyright (c) 1996-1997
Andreas Dilger Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Guy Eric Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.


File: xaos.info,  Node: support,  Next: index,  Prev: about,  Up: Top

Függelék: D Getting Support
*****************************

XaoS is a community-supported free software project. There are many ways
to get help, all of which are explained below.

Függelék: E Home Page
***********************

The XaoS homepage is `http://xaos.sf.net'. Check here for the latest
news and information about XaoS and to download the latest versions.

E.0.1 Discussion Forums
-----------------------

XaoS has two discussion forums hosted on SourceForge. You can read them
freely, but in order to post, you must to register for a free
SourceForge account.

*Help*
     Provides a place for you to ask for help using XaoS. Other XaoS
     users and/or the XaoS developers will answer your questions.

     `http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=17768'

*Open Discussion*
     Provides a place to discuss anything related to XaoS or fractals.
     You can share tips, your own fractal creations, or any other
     fractal-related ideas with other XaoS users.

     `http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=17767'

   We welcome you to join these forums and become involved in the XaoS
community.

E.0.2 Mailing Lists
-------------------

XaoS currently has three mailing lists hosted on SourceForge.
Unfortunately, there is currently very little traffic on any of them.
Hopefully in the future, we can get more XaoS users and developers
involved in the mailing lists.  The lists are as follows:

*xaos-announce@lists.sourceforge.net*
     Low volume list that is used only to announce new releases.

     Subscribe:
     `http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/xaos-announce'
     Archive:
     `http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=xaos-announce'

*xaos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net*
     Developer mailing list, where the developers coordinate and
     discuss XaoS development.

     Subscribe:
     `http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/xaos-devel'
     Archive:
     `http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=xaos-devel'

*xaos-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net*
     General discussion list is for XaoS users to share tips and ideas
     about XaoS.

     Subscribe:
     `http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/xaos-discuss'
     Archive:
     `http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=xaos-discuss'

   Please feel free to join any or all of these mailing lists and share
your ideas with the developers and other XaoS users.

E.0.3 Bug Reports
-----------------

If you think you have found a bug in XaoS, please report it. The
developers will do their best to resolve the bug in a timely manner.

   Bug Tracker:
`http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=105771&group_id=5771'

   Please don't submit duplicate bugs. Browse the existing ones first
to make sure nobody has already reported it. You may add additional
information about a bug by entering a comment on an existing bug.

   If you are not sure if something is a bug, please open a support
request. The developers will try to answer your question and can
convert your support request to a bug if necessary.

   Support Requests:
`http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=205771&group_id=5771'

E.0.4 Feature Requests
----------------------

If you have an idea for a great new feature you'd like to see added to
XaoS, please let us know about it.  You can submit a feature request
via SourceForge, and the XaoS developers will do their best to
implement your request in a future version.

   Feature Requests:
`http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=355771&group_id=5771'

   Please don't submit duplicate feature requests. Browse the existing
ones first to make sure nobody has already requested the feature your
want. You may add your vote for a feature by adding a comment to the
existing request.


File: xaos.info,  Node: index,  Prev: support,  Up: Top

Index of functions
******************