From: pdh@netcom.com (Phil Howard )
Subject: Re: Fractint 17.2: Intere
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 00:39:45 GMT

grweiss@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Gregory Robert Weiss) writes:

>Tim Wegner usually makes sure that the lastest version gets on wuarchive
>(a mirror of SIMTEL) within a week of it coming out.  You can find 
>Fractint 17.2 (the most recent version, about 6-9 months old) for ftp at
>wuarchive.wustl.edu  in /mirrors/msdos/graphics/frain172.zip.

Ah!!! THIS was the problem.  The NAME has been changed (to protect the
innocent?).  That was probably done a while back, too, I bet.

What *IS* the official name of the program?  If I tell someone that they
can get a cool mandelbrot program that is fast, do I tell them to go find
"fractint" or "frain"?  I guess I better use the LATTER name, to avoid
all this confusion.

And I guess I should collect the list of all the sites I found "fractint.zip"
on to alert their sysadmins to purge it (and get "frain" instead if they don't
already have it).



>>Since the file names on ftp site very rarely give the version, I have no
>>clue as to which sites are up to date and which sites have just copied the
>>file without preserving the date.  I list the sites from archie and then
>>just pick the largest one that has the most recent date and on my own
>>continent if possible.

>Hmm, my experience with fractint ftp-ing (all three years of it) is that
>the files always have the version number in them.  However, be aware
>that you can't search archie for filenames with "fractint" in them; that'll
>just give you listings for X-windows version (under unix usually, which 
>supports more than 8 letter filenames! :-)  Try searching archie for 
>"frain" (short for FRActINt).  It amazes me that some sites have versions
>as old as version 12!  I do count about 18 sites with Fractint 17.2, so
>you should have no problem finding it.

Apparently I got version 7.

The problem is, again, that there was no clue in the name "fractint" to
tell anyone that the search string is "frain".  Interestingly enough,
I did try one permutation while checking archie: "frint".  Oh well.

Here's a test.  Someone just told you about a new program called "Zonkers"
and it is now at version "13.6b".  So what will you do to search for it
based in just this information.  There are a LOT of possible pernutations
for this, and programs like archie WON'T permute for you (hint! hint!, but
they are probably not reading this).

I think the problem here is that "we" are using DOS limited file names as
the keys for searching collection sites.  Even though the site hosts can
usually handle longer names (SIMTEL's TOPS-20 system can, as well as all
decent versions of UNIX) that capability is not used.  Of course there is
a good reason... the names usually get assigned in the 8+3 environment and
no site administrators have the time to go through and rename everything.

I'll have to spend some time thinking about some workable solutions.

My current thinking is to use the EXTENSION as the version, and let the
archive programs figure out what format it is in.  This would give some
more room for the name.  Another approach would be to add a bunch of
keywords to the archives giving words to search for (such as in this
case: fractal integer 32bit mandelbrot julia chaos).  Then index builder
programs can just automatically extract the keywords and construct an
index of them.  But I guess all of this is for some other newsgroup.


>Assuming that you have an older version, I think you will appreciate the
>greatly improved user interface! :-)

I just got it and gave it a shot and it is MUCH nicer.

BTW, I *APPRECIATE* the *LACK* of the drop shadow effects in the menus!!!!

Also, thanks for the confidence that I was not going crazy about the
available VESA modes in my machine.  My *OWN* program reported the modes
for 1024x768x256 and 1280x1024x16 as present, though I have not gotten
it to display anything yet, and the FV (FullView) program refused to
list those two as available (maybe I need a new version of that, too :)

For those interested, the machine is a Gateway 2000 486SX-33 with the
Western Digital SVGA (Paradise compatible) on the motherboard, and their
new 15 (model 1572-FS)i nch monitor (the 14 inch will not do 1280x1024).

Now to go grab the source and see how easy it will be to add 64 and 96
bit integer arithmetic.
-- 
/************************************************************************\
| Phil Howard,  pdh@netcom.com,  KA9WGN    Spell protection?  "1(911)A1" |
| "It's not broken... it's just functionally challenged" --Phil and Pete |
\************************************************************************/
Newsgroups: sci.fractals