(Forgive us, but we just *have* to begin this section with a plug for *our* fractal products...)
Several of Fractint's programmers have written books about fractals, Fractint, and Winfract (the Windows version of Fractint). The book about Fractint is Fractal Creations Second Edition (1994 Waite Group Press, ISBN # 1-878739-34-4). The book about Winfract is The Waite Group's Fractals for Windows (1992 Waite Group Press, ISBN # 1-878739- 25-5). These books are now very hard to find, so if you see one, better get it!
Fractal Creations Second Edition includes:
A great fractals newsletter is "Amygdala" published by Rollo Silver. You'll find equal parts fractal algorithms, humor, reviews, and ideas. Write to:
Amygdala
Box 219
San Cristobal, NM 87564
USA
Email:rsilver@lanl.gov
Phone: 505-586-0197
Another great fractals newsletter (this one based in the UK) is "FRAC'Cetera", a disk-based fractal/chaos resource, for PCs and compatibles, distributed on 3.5" HD disk, published by Jon Horner. Contact:
Jon Horner
FRAC'Cetera
Le Mont Ardaine
Rue des Ardaines
ST Peters
Guernsey GY7 9EU, CI, UK
Email: 100112.1700@compuserve.com
PH: (44) 01481 63689
Several Fractint enthusiasts are selling Fractal CDs. Two of the best are called "Fractal Frenzy" by Lee Skinner, and "Fractography" by Caren Park. Highly recommended original artwork in a variety of graphics formats.
You can receive the "Fractal Frenzy CD" by sending $39.95US + $5.00 S&H to:
Walnut Creek CDROM
1537 Palos Verdes Mall, Suite 260
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
and the "Fractography" CD by sending $30.00US + $5.00 S&H (in US/Canada) to:
Lost and Found Books
485 Front Street N, Suite A
Issaquah, WA 98027-2900
Michael Peters and Randall Scott have written a fractal program called HOP based on the Martin orbit fractals. This program is much narrower than Fractint in the kind of thing that it does, but has many more animation effects and makes a great screen saver. Michael sent us the algorithms for the chip, quadruptwo, and threeply fractal types to give us a taste. The file is called HOPZIP.EXE in LIB 4 of CompuServe's GRAPHDEV forum.
Michael has also written a handy utility called PARTOBAT which creates a batch file for generating all the images in a Fractint PAR file.
George Martin has written a useful formula file organizing program, distributed as ORGFRM.ZIP along with a comprehensive collection of formulas. Thousands of parser formulas have been written by Fractint users. A compilation of this formula output is contained in the file ORGFRM.ZIP, which is available at the CompuServe site, and which constitutes an encyclopedia of formulas written for Fractint. The compilation includes more than 4,500 formulas, arranged alphabetically by name, and with the original source file shown in each formula by comment. The package includes a utility program, orgform.exe, which copies the formulas of ".frm" files into the compilation, skipping those formulas which are already included in the compilation. Formula writers are urged to consult this compilation in order to avoid giving a new formula an existing formula name. George can be reached at [76440,1143], or 76440.1143@compuserve.com.