Starting with the work of Bert Tyler, many volunteers have joined him in developing one of the "blockbuster" programs which can be used in the study of fractals or discrete dynamics. Using 32 bit integer arithmetic and a "solid guessing" algorithm, the program draws images of fractals in seconds or minutes which not long ago took hours or days to draw.

Some of the "fractals" which can be drawn include the Mandelbrot set and Julia sets of various complex analytic functions, the basin of attraction for Newton's method in the plane, the bifurcation diagrams of various equations including the logistic equation, various attractors including the Henon, Lorenz and Rossler attractors, KAM tori, the Lyapunov fractal (corresponding to the Lyapunov exponents of a parametrized family of maps) and invariant sets of iterated function systems (IFS's). The program will also draw images related to Lindenmayer systems (L-systems) and cellular automata.

In short, this program will draw about any "fractal" which has appeared in popular mathematics literature. Most of the built-in functions have parameters which you can change. You can enter your own functions into the program and study its dynamics.

There is extensive online documentation which can be printed from within the program.

frasr196.zip contains the source code for fractint.

winf1821.zip contains the executable for a MS Windows version of fractint and wins1821.zip contains the source of this executable.

• WWW Page for Fractint