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.