Xfractint is the Unix port of fractint, which runs under X.
Fractint is an IBM PC program to generate fractals, and was written by
the the Stone Soup Group.  The Unix port was done by Ken Shirriff
(shirriff@sprite.Berkeley.EDU).  Note: Xfractint is not as reliable as
fractint and has several bugs.  Please send bug reports to Ken Shirriff.

HOW TO RUN:

If your distribution includes the directories xfmips, xfsparc, and xfalpha,
you have the ready-to-run executables for the DECstation 5000, Sun Sparc,
and Dec Alpha.
To run, set the environment variable FRACTDIR to the appropriate directory:
"setenv FRACTDIR /whatever/xfmips" (as appropriate),
cd to the appropriate directory, and run "xfract".
Note: you must have both the xfractint executable and the help file
fractint.hlp.
Note: If a filename ends in .Z, you must uncompress the file first,
using the Unix "uncompress" command: "uncompress xfmips.Z".

xfrun is a shar archive file containing colormap, formula, etc. files
associated with xfractint.
To use these files, copy xfrun to a convenient directory and unshar
it with "sh xfrun".  This will unpack a bunch of files.  Then copy the
appropriate version of "fractint.hlp" and "xfract" to this directory
and then setenv FRACTDIR to this directory.

HOW TO COMPILE:

The source code is in xfsrc, which is a shar archive file.  Copy this file
to a convenient directory and unshar it with "sh xfsrc".

If you are compiling under SunOS, Ultrix, AIX, Linux, or HPUX, read the
Makefile and uncomment the approprite lines.

Then, to compile, do:
make xfractint

To find out what features are new in this version, look at the "versions" file.

GETTING MORE FRACTAL FORMULAS:
Dan Goldwater (daniel_goldwater@brown.edu) has a huge collection of .map,
.par, etc. files called FracXtra.  You can obtain it under the name
FRACXTR5.ZIP from various sites such as
The Graphics Alternative BBS, 510-524-2780 or anonymous ftp to
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/graphics.

NOTES ON POTENTIAL PROBLEMS:

Important: if you report a bug, _please_ specify what version of xfractint
you are using.

Xfractint won't compile unless your compiler handles function prototypes.
You have the best chance of compiling xfractint if you use gcc.  SunOS cc
does not work.

To check if your compiler handles prototypes, try compiling the following
two line program:
int foo(int bar);
main() {}
If you get line 1: syntax error at or near type word "int"
then your compiler doesn't handle prototypes, so you won't be able to
compile xfractint.  (One person managed to use "unproto" from
comp.sources.misc volume 26 to strip out the prototypes, so the standard
Sun compiler would work.  You can try this, but I'm not supporting it.)

If you get "gcc: unrecognized option `-target'" when you compile, the
problem is probably that you are using an old version of gcc (1.36).  You
need a newer version.

If xfractint hangs in the title screen, the problem is probably that your
display cannot update fast enough for the scrolling.  The solution is to
use the -slowdisplay flag.

If you are using Openwindows and can't get xfractint to accept input, add
to your .Xdefaults file:
OpenWindows.FocusLenience:	True

To use all 256 colors, use the -private flag, discussed in the man page.

If you cannot view the GIFs that xfractint creates, the problem is that
xfractint creates GIF89a format and your viewer probably only handles
GIF87a format.  Run "xfractint gif87a=y" to produce GIF87a format.

The program is a straight port from the IBM PC, and it thus uses the IBM style
user interface.  See the man page for more details, and a description of
what to use for ctrl-pageup, etc.

DOCUMENTATION:

Running "make makedoc" will create a file fractint.doc, which contains the
online documentation in ascii form.

See fractsrc.doc for copyright information on fractint.
