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fractdev-digest      Saturday, December 30 2000      Volume 01 : Number 038




----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2000 19:35:19 -0600
From: Tim Wegner <[e-mail]>
Subject: latest xfractint

I tried out the latest xfractint at the web site.

1. I'm sure it is no surprise to anyone, but it still barely works under
a truecolor mode. The colors are dark purple, and solid guessing
leaves a grid of dots probably due to reading pixels failing as
before. We need to solve this, because more and more people have
their Linux running in truecolor mode.

2. After a while I changed my system to 256 colors and tried again.
The biggest problem I had was that even though the cursor keys
worked at first, it just took a few minutes of going back and forth
between the text and graphics screen, the cursor keys stopped
working, and each time I pressed a cursor key, Xfractint stopped
working and tried to exit, as though the cursor was emiting ESC or
maybe a RETURN. I guess I should figure out exactly what
sequence of events causes this. This happens under both truecolor
and 256 color. It is probably a curses problem since Xfractint uses
curses.

There is still a niche in the Linux world for a good full featured
fractal program. It would have to be GPL license or similar, and
would have to run under both Gnome and KDE (but built under one
or the other). If this was done it could be added to many
distributions, as Xfractint was with Slakware for a long time (I don't
know if it still is, I doubt it). I feel like the X version is stuck
because none of us developed the X code and don't understand it,
and the "naked X" platform is pretty well obsolete. The Allegro port
can only be a step to something else, though maybe there a few
non-GUI Linux users around. My previous opinion was that we
needed to make a portable version that would compile to Windows
as well as Linux. Now I wonder if that is worthwhile. It might be
best to pick a Linux GUI library and make a Linux version. The
Windows environment is already populated with a number of good
programs.

Tim


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------------------------------

Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 19:48:26 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Allegro port

Tim,

> I think I'm close with the allegro port, but I have had lots of trouble.

Along with installing and compiling Allegro, you need to run a setup program
in the directory you are working in.  I believe the install needs to be done
as root.

I ran some of the example programs before I even started trying to integrate
Allegro into Xfractint.  That at least showed me I could get Allegro to
work.  Upgrading to the latest WIP has not worked.  But, maybe I only tried
it under djgpp.  I couldn't get it to compile cleanly.

> 1. I couldn't install the rpm for allegro that you posted. The KDE
> RPM tool crashed, I was in never never land.

I seem to recall something like this.  I don't think it crashed, you just
have to wait a really long time.  Not too convenient, to say the least.

> 2. Allegro is set up for /usr/local/lib whereas my Mandrake Linux
> 7.2 is set up for /usr/lib. I'm sure there is a better fix, but I just
> added /usr/local/bin to my path and made link in /usr/lib to the
> allegro shared library in /usr/local/lib.

I believe that is what the docs tell you to do.

> 3. At this point Xfractint could compile and run, but it aborted with a
> seg fault with a whole bunch of messages about various video
> modes. I don't think it was able to set the modes.

Assuming that you compiled the Allegro source, ran the setup routine in the
Xfractint directory, and maybe copied a file or two to some other location
(this could have been under djgpp).  Or, is that copied the setup program
and ran it in the Xfractint directory?

At any rate, I needed to study the Allegro documentation for a while before
I could even make the examples work.

> I think I need details about your Linux
> environment, and step by step instructions, though I think I figured
> most of it out. Is there a command line parameter I need when I run
> Xfractint/Allegro?

I'm using Mandrake 7.0.  Going from 6.5 to 7.0 broke some things and changed
the interface.  I don't need to keep going through that.

No, there is no command line parameter needed to run Xfractint/Allegro.

For more specifics, I'll need to try updating the WIP under Linux (meaning
maybe next weekend).  I do have Allegro installed on two different machines,
so it is possible to do it.

Jonathan



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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 07:17:34 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: latest xfractint

Tim,

>>
The biggest problem I had was that even though the cursor keys
worked at first, it just took a few minutes of going back and forth
between the text and graphics screen, the cursor keys stopped
working, and each time I pressed a cursor key, Xfractint stopped
working and tried to exit, as though the cursor was emiting ESC or
maybe a RETURN. I guess I should figure out exactly what
sequence of events causes this. This happens under both truecolor
and 256 color. It is probably a curses problem since Xfractint uses
curses.
<<

I haven't run into this, but it's been a while since I've played much with
the developer's Xfractint.  I think part of the problem is that the cursor
keys either aren't translated in translate() or get redefined by the
environment before they get to Xfractint.  For the Allegro port I rewrote
translate() to do what I wanted.  It's not perfect, but it's better.  You
might take a look at that.  As I recall, it's been moved to d_allegro.c.

If we start including a standard sstools.ini file with our distribution to
define directories were files can be found, we should make a new [xfractint]
section.  This is because of the / versus \ issue.

Jonathan



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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 07:42:05 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: latest xfractint

Tim,

> My previous opinion was that we
> needed to make a portable version that would compile to Windows
> as well as Linux. Now I wonder if that is worthwhile. It might be
> best to pick a Linux GUI library and make a Linux version. The
> Windows environment is already populated with a number of good
> programs.

Ack!!

Under the ftp/current directory we should make a diffs subdirectory so the
Linux folks don't say, "Huh, where's the diff?"  It's already happened.
That way the dos directory will only contain executables (except for the fo
source).  Perhaps we should include the developer's source (float & integer)
in the dos directory as well.  Keep a current source synch.

Jonathan



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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 11:29:49 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Patch 4 to version 20.1

The patch 4 diff and executable files are now available.

This patch eliminates the lockup when inside=startrail is used with fractal
type circle.  It also fixes problems Xfractint had with fractal type
cellular and with "popping" out of existence when attempting to use the
parameter, formula, and lsystem (and maybe one or two others) selection
screens.

Jonathan



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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 15:07:27 -0600
From: "Scott D. Boyd" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: latest xfractint

On Saturday 09 December 2000 19:35, you wrote:
> I tried out the latest xfractint at the web site.
>

> 2. After a while I changed my system to 256 colors and tried again.
> The biggest problem I had was that even though the cursor keys
> worked at first, it just took a few minutes of going back and forth
> between the text and graphics screen, the cursor keys stopped
> working, and each time I pressed a cursor key, Xfractint stopped
> working and tried to exit, as though the cursor was emiting ESC or
> maybe a RETURN. I guess I should figure out exactly what
> sequence of events causes this. This happens under both truecolor
> and 256 color. It is probably a curses problem since Xfractint uses
> curses.
>
I played with xfract-20.1.04 for about an hour last night, zooming in,
switching back-and-forth (text-to-graphic), pressing 'tab' to look at image
info, etc. Had no problems with the cursor keys. (I was running it in an
xterm window in Linux-Mandrake 7.2 / KDE 2.0.)

And yea! - the '@" key works again! Thanks Jonathan!

Scott
- --
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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 15:49:02 -0600
From: Tim Wegner <[e-mail]>
Subject: Xfractint directory reorganization

Scott has done us a great favor by pushing us to do something about
Xfractint's use of directories.

A bit of history. Ken Shirriff did the Xfractint port a long time ago entirely on
his own. He did a brilliant job. Many others tried and failed.

Since then, for the most part, we have just tried to update his work to keep it
abreast of the DOS version. This was possible because he designed Xfractint
to share source with Fractint. So I took it upon myself to keep Xfractint
updated to the fractint source. Along the way, there were a few times when
Ken (or others) jumped in and helped, but until now we have never asked any
really fundamental questions about Xfractint and how it is set up. However
this is long overdue, so kudos to Scott. The current setup is based on
whatever Ken thought was the right thing. And it MAY have been right when
he did it ...

I want to talk about it a bit first not because there is any real problem with
Scott's proposals, but just to give us all some time to think about it.

Here is Scott's proposal:

        currently installed
filename         location
- --------    ----------------
xfractint     /usr/X11R6/bin (BINDIR)
fractint.hlp /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
map files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
frm files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
par files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
ifs files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
man page     /usr/X11R6/man/man1
config files /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
user-created /home/username/*
sstools.ini     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
/home/username/*

        proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
map files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
par files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint
user-created              /home/username/*
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  /home/username/*

Thoughts? I have personally just put all the xfractint
stuff in /home/tim/xfractint because I am always
fooling with it. I guess I usually change SRCDIR to ".".

Occasionally I have wondered if it is a good idea to
compile directories in. Some software has a special .h
file just for this sort of thing. But I have wondered
if it wouldn't be better.

Tim



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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 15:51:25 -0600
From: Tim Wegner <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: latest xfractint

> I played with xfract-20.1.04 for about an hour last night, zooming in,
> switching back-and-forth (text-to-graphic), pressing 'tab' to look at image
> info, etc. Had no problems with the cursor keys. (I was running it in an
> xterm window in Linux-Mandrake 7.2 / KDE 2.0.)

I tried today and saw the problem almost immediately. Then I tried
again and didn't see it. It is something to do with changing focus
between windows - I'll have to isolate the exact key sequence.

Tim


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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 20:51:24 -0600
From: Tim Wegner <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Xfractint directory reorganization

Scott,

One small problem I see with your Xfractint setup is that the install
script calls make but the various variables might have been
changed in make, so the assumptions about the defaults might be
wrong. Also, the way the makefile is currently setup is that there
are settings for many platforms. I'm not sure if we want to change
the settings on other platforms, only Linux. Not  that very many
people are using Xfractint on other platforms.

I'll probably make the email address [e-mail] instead
of [e-mail]. At the moment all mail not to one of the
other folks comes to me. I have full control of the email through a
tool Damien gave me access. If anyone has a reason for a
fractint.org email alias (for example, if there's a particular kind of
support you could supply) let me know, it's easily done.

Tim


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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 21:48:42 -0600
From: "Scott D. Boyd" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Xfractint directory reorganization

Tim,

Good points that I hadn't thought of.
>
> One small problem I see with your Xfractint setup is that the install
> script calls make but the various variables might have been
> changed in make, so the assumptions about the defaults might be
> wrong.
When you say the "various variables", do you mean the variable such as
DESTDIR and BINDIR? If so, there might be a way to have the install script
look at those variables and work with them. (Using 'grep' maybe?)

> Also, the way the makefile is currently setup is that there
> are settings for many platforms. I'm not sure if we want to change
> the settings on other platforms, only Linux. Not  that very many
> people are using Xfractint on other platforms.
I was going to put something to that effect in the README - that the changes
and settings were recommended for Linux only, and hadn't been tested on any
other Unix systems. (Until I can find a good, used Sun UltraSparc, that is.)
I also wish that my employer would let me compile and run Xfractint on one of
their HP-9000's, but it's not for business purposes, so, no can do... (I'm
sure those HP-9000's have plenty of spare CPU cycles, though.)   8-)
>
>
And in response to your original email with this same subject:
Thanks for the kudos and kind words! I wasn't expecting that! Actually, I was
expecting some reluctance, because of your comments earlier in the year about
not wanting to fork the Xfractint source. I felt that there were others that
would feel the same way also. Especially those of you like you Tim, and
Jonathan, who work on patching both versions, and keeping them in sync with
one another.

Until later,
Scott
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 00:09:05 -0600
From: Tim Wegner <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Xfractint directory reorganization

Scott asked:

> When you say the "various variables", do you mean the variable such as
> DESTDIR and BINDIR?

Yes

> If so, there might be a way to have the install script
> look at those variables and work with them. (Using 'grep' maybe?)

Maybe the make file should call the script? Either the script or the
makefile should be able to pass variables to the other. I think. I am
barely competent with scripting, just seem to be able to make em
work when I need to.

> Actually, I was
> expecting some reluctance, because of your comments earlier in the year about
> not wanting to fork the Xfractint source.

Nothing you are proposing comes close to forking. And the stuff
you are addrerssing is long overdue.

Tim


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------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 10:55:42 -0600
From: "Scott D. Boyd" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Xfractint directory reorganization

On Tuesday 12 December 2000 00:09, you wrote:
>
> Maybe the make file should call the script? Either the script or the
> makefile should be able to pass variables to the other. I think. I am
> barely competent with scripting, just seem to be able to make em
> work when I need to.
>
I'll take a look at it and see what I can get to work. I'm not a scripting
wiz, either, but I'm getting better at it!

Scott
- --
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http://home.swbell.net/sdboyd56/

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 18:10:32 -0700
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [none]

Date sent:          Thu, 14 Dec 2000 17:45:36 -0700
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    ["Humberto R. Baptista" <[e-mail]>]
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>From [e-mail] Thu Dec 14 17:45:34 2000
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From: "Humberto R. Baptista" <[e-mail]>
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Subject: RE: Xfractint directory reorganization
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 21:42:04 -0300
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    Hi,

    I've been away for a while from the list, but as times goes by we tend to
find the moments to go back to the things we like :-)

    Regarding the proposal I tend to get confused with the variable name SRCDIR
used to point to global configuration files such as man, frm, par etc.

    The proposal:
            proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
map files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
par files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint
user-created              /home/username/*
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  /home/username/*

    Could be more like:

            proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin/
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint/      ******See below*****
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1/
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/
map files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/map/
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/frm/
par files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/par/
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/ifs/
user-created              $HOME (usually points to :/home/username/)
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  $HOME (usually points to :/home/username/)

    My only concern with this is as of where should the .hlp file be placed.
I'm not sure by maybe the FHS allows the creation of special directories
under the /opt/aplication/ level. If this is so I would recommend to use
/opt/xfractint/hlp/

    Best Regards to all

    Humberto R. Baptista
    [e-mail]
    aka [e-mail]



- -----Mensaje original-----
De: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]En nombre de Tim Wegner
Enviado el: Domingo, 10 de Diciembre de 2000 18:49
Para: [e-mail]
Asunto: Xfractint directory reorganization


Scott has done us a great favor by pushing us to do something about
Xfractint's use of directories.

A bit of history. Ken Shirriff did the Xfractint port a long time ago
entirely on
his own. He did a brilliant job. Many others tried and failed.

Since then, for the most part, we have just tried to update his work to keep
it
abreast of the DOS version. This was possible because he designed Xfractint
to share source with Fractint. So I took it upon myself to keep Xfractint
updated to the fractint source. Along the way, there were a few times when
Ken (or others) jumped in and helped, but until now we have never asked any
really fundamental questions about Xfractint and how it is set up. However
this is long overdue, so kudos to Scott. The current setup is based on
whatever Ken thought was the right thing. And it MAY have been right when
he did it ...

I want to talk about it a bit first not because there is any real problem
with
Scott's proposals, but just to give us all some time to think about it.

Here is Scott's proposal:

        currently installed
filename         location
- --------    ----------------
xfractint     /usr/X11R6/bin (BINDIR)
fractint.hlp /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
map files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
frm files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
par files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
ifs files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
man page     /usr/X11R6/man/man1
config files /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
user-created /home/username/*
sstools.ini     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
/home/username/*

        proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
map files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
par files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint
user-created              /home/username/*
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  /home/username/*

Thoughts? I have personally just put all the xfractint
stuff in /home/tim/xfractint because I am always
fooling with it. I guess I usually change SRCDIR to ".".

Occasionally I have wondered if it is a good idea to
compile directories in. Some software has a special .h
file just for this sort of thing. But I have wondered
if it wouldn't be better.

Tim



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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 18:32:53 -0700
From: "Humberto R. Baptista" <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: Xfractint directory reorganization

    Hi,

    I've been away for a while from the list, but as times goes
by we tend to
find the moments to go back to the things we like :-)

    Regarding the proposal I tend to get confused with the
variable name SRCDIR
used to point to global configuration files such as man, frm, par etc.

    The proposal:
            proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
map files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
par files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint
user-created              /home/username/*
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  /home/username/*

    Could be more like:

            proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin/
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint/      ******See below*****
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1/
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/
map files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/map/
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/frm/
par files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/par/
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint/ifs/
user-created              $HOME (usually points to :/home/username/)
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  $HOME (usually points to :/home/username/)

    My only concern with this is as of where should the .hlp file be placed.
I'm not sure by maybe the FHS allows the creation of special directories
under the /opt/aplication/ level. If this is so I would recommend to use
/opt/xfractint/hlp/

    Best Regards to all

    Humberto R. Baptista
    [e-mail]
    aka [e-mail]



- -----Mensaje original-----
De: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]En nombre de Tim Wegner
Enviado el: Domingo, 10 de Diciembre de 2000 18:49
Para: [e-mail]
Asunto: Xfractint directory reorganization


Scott has done us a great favor by pushing us to do something about
Xfractint's use of directories.

A bit of history. Ken Shirriff did the Xfractint port a long time ago
entirely on
his own. He did a brilliant job. Many others tried and failed.

Since then, for the most part, we have just tried to update his work to keep
it
abreast of the DOS version. This was possible because he designed Xfractint
to share source with Fractint. So I took it upon myself to keep Xfractint
updated to the fractint source. Along the way, there were a few times when
Ken (or others) jumped in and helped, but until now we have never asked any
really fundamental questions about Xfractint and how it is set up. However
this is long overdue, so kudos to Scott. The current setup is based on
whatever Ken thought was the right thing. And it MAY have been right when
he did it ...

I want to talk about it a bit first not because there is any real problem
with
Scott's proposals, but just to give us all some time to think about it.

Here is Scott's proposal:

        currently installed
filename         location
- --------    ----------------
xfractint     /usr/X11R6/bin (BINDIR)
fractint.hlp /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
map files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
frm files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
par files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
ifs files     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
man page     /usr/X11R6/man/man1
config files /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
user-created /home/username/*
sstools.ini     /usr/X11R6/xfractint (SRCDIR)
/home/username/*

        proposed location
filename        (as per the FHS 2.1)
- --------            -----------------
xfractint        (BINDIR)  /opt/xfractint/bin
fractint.hlp    (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
map files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
frm files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
par files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
ifs files        (SRCDIR)  /opt/xfractint
man page                  /opt/xfractint/man/man1
config files    (SRCDIR)  /etc/opt/xfractint
user-created              /home/username/*
sstools.ini        (SRCDIR)  /home/username/*

Thoughts? I have personally just put all the xfractint
stuff in /home/tim/xfractint because I am always
fooling with it. I guess I usually change SRCDIR to ".".

Occasionally I have wondered if it is a good idea to
compile directories in. Some software has a special .h
file just for this sort of thing. But I have wondered
if it wouldn't be better.

Tim


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Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 23:00:38 -0600
From: "Scott D. Boyd" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Discussion of Xfractint dir. reorganization

On Thursday 14 December 2000 19:10, Humberto wrote:


>     Regarding the proposal I tend to get confused with the variable name
> SRCDIR used to point to global configuration files such as man, frm, par
> etc.
>
>     My only concern with this is as of where should the .hlp file be placed.
> I'm not sure by maybe the FHS allows the creation of special directories
> under the /opt/aplication/ level.

Yes it does.

If this is so I would recommend to use
> /opt/xfractint/hlp/
>
I had considered something similar to that, except it was with the .par,
.frm. etc files being placed in their own directories under /opt/xfractint.
(Actually, it was Jonathan's suggestion/idea.) I had looked thru the source,
trying to determine how the program knows where those files are kept. I saw a
reference to a variable called "FRACTDIR", but couldn't figure out where that
variable was initally set (with 'setenv' function?). I imagine it would be
just as difficult trying to change where the program looks for fractint.hlp,
as it is also in the same directory as the .par and .frm files. fractint.hlp
is really tied in pretty close with the main program. In fact, Xfractint (and
Fractint, for that matter) won't even start I believe the user can set an
environment variable to force the program to look for fractint.hlp in another
directory, but I'd like to leave that up to the individual users to change if
they want to.

I could look into this further if need be. Any one else in the group feel
that fractint.hlp should be in a sub-dir of /opt/xfractint? Comments?

Scott

- --
[e-mail]
http://home.swbell.net/sdboyd56/
- -----------------------------
Linux...
"Find out what you've been missing while
you've been rebooting Windows NT."
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Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 19:03:51 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Discussion of Xfractint dir. reorganization

Scott,

> I had considered something similar to that, except it was with the .par,
> .frm. etc files being placed in their own directories under
/opt/xfractint.
> (Actually, it was Jonathan's suggestion/idea.) I had looked thru the
source,
> trying to determine how the program knows where those files are kept. I
saw a
> reference to a variable called "FRACTDIR", but couldn't figure out where
that
> variable was initally set (with 'setenv' function?). I imagine it would be
> just as difficult trying to change where the program looks for
fractint.hlp,
> as it is also in the same directory as the .par and .frm files.

The location of the frm, par, etc files can be set in the sstools.ini file.
I would propose making an [xfractint] section because of the slash/backslash
variation in how directories are named.  It should be possible to set the
current xfractint directory in the make file with FRACTDIR and then use
entries in sstools.ini such as formulafile=./frm/fractint.frm.  For some
reason, using a different file name doesn't currently work.

Jonathan



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Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 20:35:27 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Allegro port

Tim,

> 1. I couldn't install the rpm for allegro that you posted. The KDE
> RPM tool crashed,

I did this yesterday with no problems.  I put the Allegro rpm file in
/usr/local/src, then used the KDE RPM tool.  After the installation was
complete, I went to the Allegro subdirectory and typed ./configure.  It was
already set up, so I didn't need to do this.  But, I didn't know that before
hand.  Then I ran "make".  Then "make install".  All this was done as root.

There are three readme files that you need to look at; readme.txt,
readme.uni, and readme.lnx.  The other thing I do is copy setup and
setup.dat to my working directory.  Then I run setup and it generates an
allegro.cfg file.  It's not currently of much use, but may be in the future.

Jonathan



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Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 20:14:11 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Patch 5 to version 20.1

Patch 5 is on the ftp site along with the executable.  The DOS, DOS float
only, and Xfractint versions have been updated.

What's new:

Updated the disk video help docs.  The limit of disk video has been
  32767x32767 since version 20.0.

  Fixed the tab and evolver screens so that not using formula parameters
  consecutively starting with p1 now displays the parameters properly.
  The p4 and p5 parameters have still not been added to the evolver.

  Setting directories in sstools.ini can now be done relative to the
  current directory.  For example: .\frm\fract200.frm

BTW, I'm sure the last is true for the DOS version only.

Jonathan




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Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 18:45:07 -0600
From: "Jonathan Osuch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Bug of the Month

It's a little late, but not much has changed.  The problems with the parser
remain and a new problem with saving disk video images that are tall and
skinny has shown up.  Try saving an image with a resolution of 2048x20000.
All seems to go well for a while.  Then the line numbers go crazy.  This
corresponds with the bottom part of the image which doesn't get saved.

The save problem will go away when we switch to png.  Can we wait?  Does
anybody know enough about the GIF encoding routines to fix this?

The parser bugs will mostly go away when we switch over to the all C code.
It would still be nice to fix them.  And, who knows, we may port the parser
over to nasm...

I'll upload patch 6 Monday morning with the fix for fractint.cfg key
assignments.  And, dare I mention, an updated copyright date.

Jonathan




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Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 23:03:51 -0600
From: Tim Wegner <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Bug of the Month

Jonathan asked:

> The save problem will go away when we switch to png.

I investigated supporting PNG. I actually put a whole lot of effort
into this, including working hard to have medium model support
built into LibPNG.

I do not believe that the medium model Fractint can ever support
PNG except via an external program - e.g. save to a flat file and
execl to an external program that transforms the external file to a
PNG. This is ugly but probably not too hard. But the memory
requirements for LibPNG plus the fact that Fractint is highly
optimized for the medium model, and shoehorned very tightly,
preclude integrating PNG the way GIF is integrated now.

> Does anybody know enough about the GIF encoding routines to fix this?

Depends. If the bug is related to a memory problem due to the odd
dimensions, we can probably find and fix it. But if the bug is in the
GIF code itself, it is like the devil to fix.

Bert Tyler originally wrote his own encoder. The decoder came from
 another author (Steve Bennet, I think). Eventually we learned that
Bert's code had some subtle bugs. We were never able to track
them down. Instead I located some other sources that were widely
used. I am unaware that the new sources have any bugs.

Something that still makes me mad is that Unisys extracts money
for the GIF patent but supplies no support. PNG, by way of
contrast, extracts no royalties but has tremendous support.

Tim


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