#What is Chaos?
I'll admit right at the outset, that I've seen -but not read- Gleick's
book. And that frames my question fairly well….
My first exposure to "Chaos, the Software" was an ad in "Discover"
magazine. The illustration accompanying the ad appeared to be a group of
ray-traced orbs circling a larger orb, all with mandelbrot set fractal
surface mapping. I'm a ray-tracer, and a fractal-landscaper, and this
looked pretty nifty.
My second exposure came in CIS' monthly magazine, and led to my third:
downloading the .GIFs mentioned there.
Now I'm confused. The .GIF's I got look like FRACTINT output. So, is
Chaos just another fractal-painter (with maybe a better frontend)? Or is
it more? How much more? (Yeah, I know, 60 bux more.) I snagged a copy of
CRATERS (the code that didn't make the cut), and found that intriguing for
about 15 minutes or so — is Chaos better than this? How much better?
I'll make a deal: give me an honest answer to what Chaos is/does, and I'll
buy/read the book. Fair?
Is a Persistance of Vision/Vivid RayTracer, and FractInt Dabbler going to
find value in Chaos?
Thanks, Tom.