CompuServe Messages

Larry: Autodesk has two programs in which you might be interested: 1) James Gleick's CHAOS: The Software – six modules based on some of the ideas in Gleick's book: Mandelbrot and related sets, strange attractors, magnets and pendula, IFS fractals, cellular automata, and fractal landscapes, planets, & clouds. All of the modules have a fairly easy-to-master mouse-driven interface, though you can use the keyboard, if you like memorizing all those Alt-whatever key sequences. 2) Rudy Rucker's Cellular Automata Laboratory ("CA Lab") – a more in-depth treatment of cellular automata than in CHAOS: The Software. CA Lab comprises two programs: a text-mode, highly interactive one, and a graphics mode programmable one. More fun than Pac-Man, more stimulating than PBS, and the manual (written by Rudy Rucker) is a real hoot. CHAOS: The Software and CA Lab are $60 each, and last I checked, you could order them by calling 800/688-2344. There also are a jillion public domain and shareware fractal programs, the best of which is FRACTINT (GO COMART, Section 15). – Mark M.