Gnofract 4D

For when 2D fractals just aren't weird enough

Tim Whidbey


Table of Contents

Introduction
Using Gnofract 4D
Interacting with the Fractal
Working with Files
Tools
Toolbar buttons
Changing Fractal Settings
Hints
Command Reference
Mouse Commands
Keyboard Shortcuts
About the maths
The Mandelbrot Set
The Julia Set
The Julibrot
Viewing in Four Dimensions
Hypercomplex Fractals and Quaternions
Writing Your Own Functions
Writing Your First Formula
Formula Language Reference
Operators
Functions
Symbols
Gnofract 4D Internals
Source Code Layout
Compiler
Threading
Bugs and Known Issues
Reporting Bugs
Backwards Compatibility
About Gnofract 4D
Credits and copyright

Introduction

There is no excellent beauty which hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Francis Bacon

Gnofract 4D is a program which draws complex mathematical objects known as fractals, including the Mandelbrot and Julia sets and many others. It allows you to treat a fractal which has more than one parameter as a four-dimensional object and interactively view slices of this object from arbitrary angles, giving rise to some very unusual images.

This user's manual provides a tutorial introduction to Gnofract 4D and the mathematical background behind it, information on how to use the graphical interface, and reference material on the language used to write fractal formulas.