Micro R&D 5: Mand 2000/Mand 2000 - Micro R&D CD-ROM Vol 5.iso/gettingstarted.txt

Text File | 1980-02-21 | 27KB | 600 lines

                      Mand2000 CD-ROM Startup Guide:

    Thank  you  for  purchasing the Mand2000 CD-ROM.  We hope you enjoy
using it to explore the amazing world of fractals.

    Although  the  Mand2000 CD-ROM does not come with a printed manual,
that  does  not  mean that Mand2000 comes without documentation.  Quite the
opposite.   Mand2000  comes  with  almost a hundred pages of documentation,
covering  every aspect of the program.  However, because this documentation
is  in  electronic  form,  rather than in a printed manual, it can be a bit
tricky  to  find  at first.  That's what this startup guide is for.  If you
read  through this startup guide you'll end up with a good understanding of
how  some of the important and unique features of Mand2000 work, and you'll
know where to find the documentation on all of the other features.

    If  you  are already familiar with how Mand2000 works, perhaps from
using  a previous version, you should still read this manual - particularly
the 'New for 2.0' section at the end.


                                 Contents:

    What's on the CD-ROM
    Starting Exploring
    Getting Help
    Installation
    Changing resolutions
    Multiple windows and requesters
    Cool feature: Show location
    New for 2.0
    Bonus Fractals
    Bonus Commands
    Conclusion
    Credits
    Contact Information





                           What's on the CD-ROM:

    As  well  as  containing  the full release version of Mand2000, the
best  fractal exploration program on the Amiga, or any other computer, this
CD-ROM  also  contains  over  30,000  frames  of animation and thousands of
individual images.  These images can be used as is, royalty free, or can be
used as starting points or inspirations for future exploring.

    The  CD-ROM  is  organized  into categories of effects that you can
create  with Mand2000.  There's a drawer for Zoom animations, one for Julia
Seed  animations,  one  for  pictures, etc.  In each drawer there is a text
file  explaining how you can create additional animations of this type, and
there are also some more drawers, with names like NTSCHAM, NTSC256, etc.

    In  an  attempt to please all of the people all of the time, all of
the  images  and animations have been rendered out in a number of different
resolutions.   This  means that all of them can be viewed to best effect on
all  systems.   Those  with non-AGA machines can view the NTSCHAM or PALHAM
versions.   Those  with third-party graphics boards can view the NTSC256 or
HIRESNTSC versions.  And those with AGA Amigas can view whichever ones they
feel like.

    Calculating  the  images  for  this  CD kept an Amiga 4000 busy for
quite   some  time.   Something  well  over  ten  trillion  floating  point
calculations were required to calculate the images on this disk.  Much much
more  would  have  been  required,  if it weren't for Mand2000's ability to
reuse   iteration  data  for  multiple  pictures  and  animations  in  some
situations.

    For  more information on how this CD-ROM was created, check out the
"TheMakingOf"  directory,  which  contains  many  of  the ARexx scripts and
source images used.





                            Starting Exploring:

    The  first  thing  you  probably  want to do with Mand2000 is start
exploring  fractals.   You may have figured out how to do this already, but
you  should  read  this  section anyway, because not all of the methods are
obvious.

    The  simplest  way  to  get  started  is to place the mouse over an
interesting  area, one with a lot of detail, and then double click the left
mouse button.  The picture will zoom out - animated - placing the area that
was  under  the mouse in the centre of the window.  Pretty cool!  Each time
you double click the magnification doubles.

Other easy ways to move around include:

-    Click and drag with the mouse - the picture follows.

-    Scroll with the arrow keys - press shift or alt to scroll faster.

-    Scroll with the numeric key pad - press shift or alt to scroll
faster.

-    Press 'I' to zoom in, or 'D' to zoom out.

-    Select the 'Box zoom' menu and then draw a box around the area you
want to magnify.

-    Select the 'Set location' menu and type in coordinates.

-    Select a location from the 'Good spots' menu.

-    Select the 'Open' menu and load one of the sample pictures from the
PICS directory.

    As  you  can  see  there  are  lot  of ways to move around.  That's
because  that's  what  fractal  exploration  is  all  about  -  zooming in,
scrolling  around,  hunting for that perfect spot, and enjoying the magical
complexity of fractals.





                               Getting help:

    As  mentioned  earlier, Mand2000 comes with a lot of documentation.
Some  of  this  is  available  through  the  'Help and info' command in the
'Project'  menu.   Select  this  and you'll be presented with some buttons,
offering you options as to what you would like help on.  The help available
through  this  menu  item  is  excellent for giving you an overview of what
Mand2000 is and how to best use it.

    Whereas  the  'Help and info' help gives you an overview of a range
of  Mand2000  topics, the context sensitive help gives you information on a
specific  menu  item.   To use the context sensitive help, run Mand2000 and
use  the mouse to highlight one of the menu items - it doesn't matter which
one.   While  the  menu  item is highlighted, press the help key.  Mand2000
will  search  through  the file Mand2000.help - which should be in the same
drawer  as  Mand2000  -  and  find  the  section  that  describes  how that
particular  menu  item  works.  What could be simpler?  Make lots of use of
this  feature.   With  it  you  can interactively explore all of Mand2000's
menus.   And  remember,  while  the  help  is  up,  you can continue to use
Mand2000.   This  means that you can read about how a menu item works while
you use it.  Every single menu item has help on it, sometimes several pages
worth.   We  strongly urge you to make use of this help - it makes Mand2000
much easier to use.

    But wait, there's even more documentation.  For those interested in
extending  Mand2000's abilities, a few simple ARexx scripts can do wonders.
Full  documentation  on  Mand2000's  powerful  ARexx scripting abilities is
contained   in   'ARexx.guide'   in   the  documentation  directory.   This
documentation is in MultiView/AmigaGuide format for ease of use.

    For  the  truly  technically  minded,  those  interested in writing
support  programs for Mand2000, there is documentation of Mand2000's custom
IFF  chunks  in  the  file Mand2000Tech.doc in the documentation directory.
Mand2000's  files are fully IFF compatible and can be loaded by hundreds of
programs  that  support  loading IFF images.  However Mand2000's files also
contain some custom chunks of data for storing such things as the location,
fractal type, and optional iteration data.

    Finally,  there is one last hidden treasure trove of documentation,
missed  by  all but the most astute.  All of the ARexx scripts in the ARexx
directory  are  extensively  documented  -  they are typically at least 75%
comments.   If  you  are  at all interested in ARexx programming, or if you
have  used one of these ARexx scripts and you wish it behaved just a little
bit  differently,  load  some  of these into your favourite text editor (we
recommend  CygnusEd).  In many cases changes can be made with only a slight
understanding of ARexx programming.





                               Installation:

    Installing  Mand2000  is  quite  easy,  which  is  why this section
appears  so  late  in  this  document.   You  don't have to copy any of the
programs  off  of  the  CD-ROM,  but  if you do so you will get faster more
convenient access.  To do this, make a drawer on your hard drive, or on the
floppy disk you will be using, and copy the following files:

-    Mand2000 - the actual program.

-    TweenPlayer - for playing zoom movies.

-    Mand2000.help - the help file - must be in the same directory as
Mand2000.

    That's  all  the  files you need to copy.  Mand2000 doesn't require
any  special  libraries other than those that come with your 2.04 or higher
system.   No  special  configuration  of  your  Amiga  is  necessary.  When
Mand2000  is  run  it automatically senses which processor you have (68000,
68010,  68020,  68030,  68040  or higher, plus 68881 or 68882) and uses the
fastest  calculation routines available for that processor.  It also senses
what screen modes, such as AGA or ECS, your Amiga supports.

    Although  it  isn't  necessary, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you
also  install  the ARexx scripts, even if you have zero knowledge of how to
program  in  ARexx.  Installing the ARexx scripts means that suddenly, with
almost  no  effort  on your part, you get at least eight new menu commands.
These commands let you produce spectacular animations, let you put Mand2000
in an eye catching demo mode, and more.  To install these ARexx scripts and
reap  all  these  benefits just click on the 'InstallRexx' icon.  This will
execute  a script which will copy all of the Mand2000 ARexx scripts to your
'Rexx:'  drawer,  and  will  copy an ADPro script to your 'ADPro:commands2'
drawer.   ADPro  -  Art  Department  Professional - is a commercial product
available  from  ASDG  Inc.   If you don't have ADPro then the ADPro script
will  not get installed - just cancel the requester asking for the 'ADPro:'
disk.

    ARexx  is  supplied  with  every  copy of AmigaDos 2.04 and higher.
However  Commodore  delivers  their computers with ARexx disabled to save a
few  kilobytes  of  memory.  To enable ARexx, locate the 'RexxMast' icon on
your  workbench  disk.   On some systems it is in the system drawer, but on
other systems it may be elsewhere.  When you locate it, double click on it.
A  window will appear briefly.  ARexx is now running.  After installing the
scripts  and  running  RexxMast,  run  Mand2000.   In  the 'User' menu (the
rightmost menu) you should notice a new set of menus.  These menus actually
correspond  to  ARexx scripts, but you can use them as if they were part of
the  program.   To  have ARexx automatically run each time you restart your
Amiga,  drag  the RexxMast icon into the WBStartup drawer on your workbench
disk.

    The  Mand2000 CD-ROM was designed to be viewed either from the CLI,
from  any image viewer, or from the workbench.  If you will be exploring it
from the workbench, you may be interested in how the icons have been setup.

    All  of  the  images  on  this  CDRom  have  a default tool type of
Mand2000CD:Mand2000,  so  if  you  double  click on an image, it loads into
Mand2000.

    The  zoom  movies  are  stored  as Mand2000 Tween movies and have a
default  tool type of Mand2000CD:TweenPlayer, so if you double click on one
of these movies, they load and play.

    All  of  the  animations  have a default tool type of 'AnimPlayer'.
Everybody  uses  a  different  anim  player,  I didn't want to force my own
preferences  on  anyone,  so  just  copy  your  favourite  anim  player  to
C:AnimPlayer and then you can double click to play animations.





                           Changing resolutions:

    One  question  that  Mand2000 users consistently ask is 'how do you
change  the screen resolution?' If you look under the 'Setup' menu you will
find a 'Set screen' menu item.  This will bring up the standard screen mode
requester,  as  supplied  by Commodore.  With this requester you can select
any  screen  mode  allowed  on  your  machine,  up to 256 colours (hardware
permitting).  Many graphics board vendors make their boards show up in this
list,  allowing you to run Mand2000 on the Picasso II, Piccolo, Retina, EGS
Spectrum, and many other boards.

    One  feature  of the screen mode requester that many people miss is
that  the  Width  and Height fields are editable.  This means that a lo-res
screen  is not forever doomed to being 320 by 200.  If you have enough chip
memory  on  your  Amiga, you can have a lo-res screen that is 4000 by 3500!
In  fact,  the  Amiga deals with overscan screens like this extremely well.
Whenever  the  mouse  reaches  the  edge of the screen, the screen smoothly
scrolls away.

    If  you  need  to  create  images  that  are truly high resolution,
perhaps  10000  by  10000, 256 colours, Mand2000 can help you.  You can use
the  'Calculate  Panels'  menu  item  -  in  the user menu, see the install
section  - to calculate an image as a grid of panels.  Then you can use the
'LoadPanels'  script,  in  the  user commands list of ADPro (Art Department
Professional) to load these panels in as a single image, for printing.





                     Multiple windows and requesters:

    Mand2000  is  a  multiple  project  program.   You can have a dozen
different  fractal  windows  open  all  at the same time.  Just select 'New
Mandelbrot' or 'New Julia' to create new windows.  They all calculate their
fractals simultaneously.

    Mand2000  is  very  much  a  requester  based  program.  Instead of
setting  the  maximum  iterations by selecting an item out of a list in the
menus, a requester comes up with a slider that you can set to any value you
want.   You  can  leave this requester, and other requesters, up as long as
you want.  Mand2000 happily continues calculating with dozens of requesters
open.   Because  you  can  have  several different 'Set maximum iterations'
requester  open  at one time, Mand2000 puts the name of the window that the
requester is attached to at the top of the requester.

    As  an  example of the careful interplay between the requesters and
the  main  windows,  select  'Set  location'  from  the  'Zoom' menu.  This
displays,  and  allows  you  to edit, the coordinates of the location being
displayed.   If you type in a new location, the change will be recalculated
immediately.   Also, if you zoom or scroll the window whose coordinates are
being  displayed  (try  clicking  and  dragging  for  the  best effect) the
coordinates update in real time.  Pretty darn cool!





                       Cool feature: Show location:

    One  of the many innovative features that are exclusive to Mand2000
is  'Show location'.  This is easier to demonstrate than to explain.  Run a
copy  of Mand2000 and zoom in a couple of times by double clicking.  Now go
to  the  'Project' menu and select 'Show location'.  A new window will open
up  with  a zoomed all the way out Mandelbrot set.  This window will have a
small grey box somewhere on it.  You should notice that this grey box marks
the  area being displayed by the other fractal window.  If you activate the
first fractal window and zoom in, or scroll, you should notice the grey box
moving around to keep up.  Now that's really cool!

    It's  not  just cool though, it's also very useful.  Sometimes when
you're  exploring  around  you  end  up zoomed in a few million times.  Or,
sometimes  you actually zoom in pretty far.  When you've zoomed in that far
(it  doesn't  take long) it can be tough to figure out where you came from.
With  the  'Show  location' requester you can easily retrace your steps, by
zooming the new window in towards the grey box.

    When  you  select  'Show location' a requester also comes up.  This
requester  is  a  little bit confusing at first because, for space reasons,
it's  pretty  plain.   Recessed  at  the top is the name of the window this
requester is attached to.  This is the window that the grey box will appear
in.   Below  that  is  a  list of all of the other windows, plus all of the
locations  from  the 'Good spots' menu.  Whichever one of those is selected
is  the  one  whose  location  is  being displayed with the grey box.  Play
around  with  it.  Use it to find out where some of the sample pictures are
(just load them in and then select 'Show location').  It's a valuable tool.





                               New for 2.0:

    One  of  the  most  requested features for Mand2000 has been 24-bit
fractals.   We are proud to announce that, despite a lack of OS support for
24-bit colour, Cygnus Software has come through.  Mand2000 2.0 will happily
display fractals in thousands of colours, making use of either HAM, HAM8 or
dithered  256  colour.   This  means  that ALL Amigas, from old Amiga 1000s
hooked  up  to  TVs  to  new  Amigas  with third party graphics boards, can
display fractals with no restrictions on the colours.

    To  use  the 'True Colour' rendering, go to Mand2000's 'Setup' menu
and select the appropriate 'Rendering Mode' from the new menu.  If you have
a  third  party  graphics  board  select  'Dithered True Colour', otherwise
select  'HAM  True  Colour'.   In  the  dithered  mode Mand2000 will use an
ordered  dither to simulate 16 million colours in screen modes with 16, 32,
64, 128 or 256 colour.  In HAM mode Mand2000 will use either HAM or HAM8 to
display  4096  or  262,144  colours.   Either  way,  use  the  'Set screen'
requester  to  choose precisely what mode you would like to run in.  If you
are  using HAM rendering, go to the 'Set misc' requester and make sure that
'Minimize  Hammies'  is  turned  on.   Otherwise 'hammies' - the horizontal
stripes  of  colour that plague HAM mode - will stretch out to the right of
windows and menus.

    One  immediate change when you go into one of the true colour modes
is that the 'Set colours' requester now displays a palette of 256 colours -
even  if  you're  running  on  an Amiga that can't display 256 colours.  If
you're  used  to displaying fractals in 32 colours then you can spend a lot
of  time  just  exploring  the  new possibilities that an extra 224 colours
bring.   The  next thing to try is loading several fractals in, each into a
separate window.  You will find that, contrary to expectations, each window
can  have its own palette!  Wow!  The third cool thing to try is loading in
some  other images.  Perhaps you have some IFF24s lying around.  Load a few
of  them into Mand2000 and you'll find that it now makes a rather handy IFF
file viewer - multi- window at that.

    But,  the  thing people really want is to be able to have more than
256  colours in a single fractal.  Well, you can certainly do that.  A fine
example  of  using  thousands  of  colours  in a single picture is the file
'Crescents  -  Tough  calc' in the pictures directory on the demo disk.  As
the name suggests, this picture will take a long time to calculate - mostly
because  it  takes an average of 10,000 iterations per pixel!  This picture
has  been carefully setup to use approximately 30,000 colours!  If you look
at  the  palette for this picture you will notice that adjacent colours are
quite  different  -  in  fact for most of the palette it alternates between
black  and  a  series  of  pastels.  This peculiar palette is turned into a
beautifully smooth palette by using the 'Colour mapping' requester.  If you
are  using  the 'Repeated' mapping type then the 'Skip' count says how many
times  each  colour  should be repeated before going on to the next colour.
In  Mand2000  1.0  the colours were repeated that number of times.  For 2.0
however,  a  smooth  24-bit  spread  is  done.  We feel that this method of
selecting  the  palette  gives  you lots of control over the final palette,
without  burdening  you  with  having  to  individually specify over 30,000
different colours!

    Also  new  for  2.0 is the ability to create animations directly in
Mand2000.   Instead of saving out frames which must later be assembled into
an  animation, Mand2000 creates .anim files (in Anim5 format) directly from
its  iteration  movie  ARexx script, its Julia movie ARexx script, and from
its morph movie requester.

    Be  sure  to  experiment  with Mand2000's ability to open on public
screens.   This  means  that you can open Mand2000 on CygnusEd's screen, or
you  can  open  CygnusEd on Mand2000's screen!  We're not sure what this is
useful for, but it must be useful somehow!

    Finally, as a cool but silly bonus, Mand2000 2.0 comes with a 'Demo
mode' ARexx script (selectable from the menus) which turns Mand2000 into an
eye-popping screen saver.  Try it, you'll like it!





                              Bonus Fractals:

    Although  Mand2000's  menus  only  list two types of fractals - the
Mandelbrot  set  and  the  Julia set - if you have a floating point unit on
your  Amiga  there  are  actually six fractals available!  These additional
fractals  are hidden in the 'Set location' requester.  When you select 'Set
location'  a  cycle  gadget labelled 'Fractal type' will appear and let you
choose  Mandelbrot,  Mand  cubed  or  Mand  fourth.  These are higher power
variations  on  the  regular Mandelbrot set, with their own distinct style.
Each  of  these  has  a  Julia variation also.  The Julia variation of Mand
fourth  can  be  reached  by  selecting  'New  Julia'  and  then using 'Set
location'  to  set the fractal type or by selecting 'New Julia' when a Mand
fourth window is open.





                              Bonus Commands:

    This  is just a reminder that there are over half a dozen extremely
powerful  commands  which should appear in the 'User' menu.  If they don't,
read  the installation section for instructions on how to make them appear.
Although these commands are put there by ARexx scripts, absolutely no ARexx
programming  is  required  to  install  and  use them.  Highly recommended,
especially for the iteration movies.





                                Conclusion:

    We  hope  that this short guide helps you to learn how to make best
use  of  Mand2000's  many  features.   Remember  to read through all of the
context  sensitive  help  and  all of the help available with the 'Help and
info'  command.   This  should  get you off to an excellent start in making
full use of the fun and power which is Mand2000.

    If  you have problems getting Mand2000 to work properly, be sure to
read  through the online help regarding the problem area.  If you are still
unable  to  solve  your  problem,  feel  free to contact us.  E-mail is the
preferred method of getting tech support, as we are not always available to
answer  the  phone.   However  feel  free  to call or write for assistance.
We're  always  happy  to  hear  suggestions,  bug reports (there aren't any
bugs!)  and  questions.   Dealer  enquiries  are welcome.  If you write any
great  ARexx  scripts,  why  not  send  them  to us for inclusion in future
versions of Mand2000?

    Mand2000  is  the  result  of several years of development and many
years  of training.  Although we don't expect to get rich from our labours,
we  do  need  your  support  to help pay the bills and keep us programming.
Please support software development on the Amiga by paying for the software
you  use,  and by not giving out copies of the release version of Mand2000.
It  is  illegal  to  pirate, and not very nice either.  The contents of the
"Demo  Version"  directory  may  be  freely distributed on a not for profit
basis.   Contact  us  if you would like to put the Mand2000 demo on a cover
disk or other for profit distribution.

    Have fun exploring fractals with Mand2000.





                                 Credits:

    Many  people  contributed  to  the creation of the Mand2000 CD-ROM.
Some of them don't even realize thay they helped, which makes it especially
important to recognize them here.

    Bill  Hawes,  author  of  ARexx,  made  it possible for me to write
scripts  that  would keep my Amiga 4000 running twenty four hours a day for
weeks at a time, computing the tens of thousands of frames required to make
this CD-ROM.  Thanks Bill.

    Colin  Fox  and  Mike  Cruse gave me a place to stay and a place to
work, respectively, in the early days of creating Mand2000.

    My  wife,  Helen,  who  put up with me while creating Mand2000, and
again  while creating this CD-ROM.  She also wrote much of the online help,
and contributed to the design of the program.

    Thomas  Ansorge,  whom  I  have  only  ever met through e-mail, has
contributed  many  ideas  to  Mand2000,  some  palettes,  and  the pictures
"Deep_in_Three_Arms_Spiral" and "Sea-Horses_Spiral".

    Donald Wright contributed the following pictures:

        Chiroptera
        Crest
        Deuce
        Evileye
        Jewel
        Kudzu
        Leaves
        Leech
        Lifeforce
        Tetrad
        Zeta

    D. L. Richardson,  who  sells  computer  videos,  including a great
one  on  fractals starring Mand2000, contributed some stunning images which
really  stretch  your  idea of the sorts of images that can be found in the
Mandelbrot  set.   His images tend to have brilliantly chosen palettes, and
tend  to  be  zoomed  in  sufficiently far that most other fractal programs
wouldn't even be able to display them!  Here are his contributions:

        4-Eyes
        CrownJewels
        Fiesta
        FishHook
        FriedEggs
        Kaleidosscope
        PaintSpill
        Peacock
        Springtime
        Tornados
        Twister
        Butterfly
        Carosel
        Earthquake
        Fingers
        Garden
        Siamese-Flower
        Spiffy
        Zoom


Bruce Dawson, Cygnus Software





                           Contact Information::


    Mand2000  was written by Cygnus Software.  Please contact us at the
address  below  with  any  technical  support,  questions,  suggestions and
fantastic pictures you've found.

    Cygnus  Software also publishes a version of Mand2000 that comes on
two  floppy  disks.  The floppy version contains all the same software, but
has  somewhat fewer sample images and animations.  To order, send a cheque,
money  order  or  cash to Cygnus Software at the address below.  The floppy
disk  version  of Mand2000 costs $44.95, shipping included.  If you wish to
pay by credit card, please contact Micro R&D.

                         Also by Cygnus Software:

    Cygnus  Software's  other major product is CygnusEd.  CygnusEd is a
high  performance text editor, featuring what is probably still the fastest
scrolling and text rendering of any editor on the Amiga today.  Add to that
such  invaluable  features  as  unlimited undo, macros attached to any key,
full  ARexx support and much more.  Version 3.5 of CygnusEd was extensively
updated  to  take advantage of the features that AmigaDos 2.0 has to offer.
3-D gadgets, public screens, the standard file, font and screen requesters,
and  the  full  AGA screen resolutions.  Meanwhile CygnusEd still maintains
full  compatibility  with version 1.3 of the operating system, bringing the
3-D  gadgetry  to  1.3.   CygnusEd  3.5's macro and configuration files and
ARexx scripts are almost 100% compatible with earlier versions of CygnusEd.
CygnusEd  is  no  longer  published  by  Elastic  Reality, Inc., and is now
available  directly  from  Cygnus  Software  with  an online manual for the
discounted price of just $49.95, shipping included.

    The  Mand2000  CD-ROM  is published by Micro R&D.  Contact them, or
your local Amiga dealer, to purchase additional copies.




    Cygnus Software
    33 University Square, #199
    Madison, WI
    53715
    USA
    [phone] (12-8PM Central Time)
    e-mail: [e-mail]




    Micro R&D
    P.O. Box 130
    721 "O" Street
    Loup City, NE
    68853
    USA
    [phone]  or  [phone]
    Fax# [phone]
    e-mail: [e-mail]