View source for Fractint

{{short description|Computer program to render and display many kinds of fractals}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = Fractint
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = Fractint_mandel.png
| caption                = The [[Mandelbrot set]] rendered in Fractint
| developer              = Stone Soup Group
| released               = {{Start date and age|1988|09}}
| latest release version = 20.04p14
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|2015|08|22}}
| operating system       = [[MS-DOS]], [[Linux]]
| language               = English
| genre                  = Fractal generating software
| license                = [[Freeware]]
| website                = {{URL|fractint.org}}
}}

'''Fractint''' (originally '''FRACT386''') is a [[freeware]] [[computer program]] to render and display many kinds of [[fractal]]s. The program originated on [[MS-DOS]], then was ported to the [[Atari ST]], [[Linux]], and [[Mac (computer)|Macintosh]]. During the early 1990s, Fractint was the definitive fractal generating program for personal computers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13117834.200-review-fractint-brought-to-book-.html |title=Review: Fractint brought to book |author=Ray Girvan |date=24 August 1991 |work=Newscientist |publisher=Reed Business Information |access-date=25 March 2013 }}</ref>

The name is a [[portmanteau]] of  ''fractal'' and ''[[integer]]'', since the first versions of Fractint used only integer arithmetic (also known as [[fixed-point arithmetic]]), for faster rendering on computers without math [[coprocessor]]s. Since then, [[floating-point arithmetic]] and [[arbitrary-precision arithmetic]] modes have been added.

FractInt can draw most kinds of fractals that have appeared in the literature. It also has a few "fractal types" that are not strictly speaking fractals, but may be more accurately described as [[display hack]]s. These include [[Cellular automaton|cellular automata]].

==Development==
[[Image:Mandelbrot palette colour editing with Fractint.png|thumb|A Mandelbrot fractal with Fractint's colour palette editor (version 20.0 in DOSBOX 0.72)]]
[[Image:Fract027.jpg|thumb|One portion of the Mandelbrot set at extreme magnification, showing how the set [[self-similarity|contains near copies of itself]]]]

Fractint originally appeared in 1988 as FRACT386, a computer program for rendering fractals very quickly on the [[Intel 80386]] processor using integer arithmetic. The 80386 requires the [[Intel 80387]] coprocessor to natively support floating point math, which was rare in [[IBM PC compatible]]s.

Early versions of FRACT386 were written by Bert Tyler, who based it on a [[Mandelbrot set|Mandelbrot]] generator for a TI-based processor that used integer math and decided to try programming something similar for his 386 machine.<ref name="FractalCreations">Tyler, Bert and Wegner, Timothy, ''Fractal Creations, 2nd edition'', Waite Group Press, 1993, {{ISBN|1-878739-34-4}}, p. 461</ref>

In February 1989, the program was renamed Fractint. In July 1990, it was ported to the [[Atari ST]], with the math routines rewritten in [[Motorola 68000]] assembly language by Howard Chu.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

==Forks==
There are two notable forks of FRACTINT: ManPWin and Iterated Dynamics.  [http://www.deleeuw.com.au/ ManPWin] is a fork based on WinFract 18 with [https://github.com/PaulTheLionHeart/manpwin source code on github].  [https://legalizeadulthood.github.io/iterated-dynamics/ Iterated Dynamics] is a fork based on FRACTINT 20.04 patch level 4, with [https://github.com/LegalizeAdulthood/iterated-dynamics source code on github].

==See also==

* [[Fractal art]]
* [[Fractal-generating software]]
{{Commons category|Fractals created with Fractint}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Michael Frame, [[Benoit Mandelbrot]], ''Fractals, Graphics, and Mathematics Education'', Volume 58 of [[Mathematical Association of America]] Notes, Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-88385-169-5}}, pp.&nbsp;57–59 (and used throughout the book)
<!--======================== {{No more links}} ============================
    | PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS IN ADDING MORE LINKS TO THIS ARTICLE. Wikipedia  |
    | is not a collection of links nor should it be used for advertising. |
    |                                                                     |
    |           Excessive or inappropriate links WILL BE DELETED.         |
    | See [[Wikipedia:External links]] & [[Wikipedia:Spam]] for details.  |
    |                                                                     |
    | If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or   |
    | replacements on this article's discussion page, or submit your link |
    | to the relevant category at the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org)   |
    | and link back to that category using the {{dmoz}} template.         |
    ======================= {{No more links}} =============================-->

==External links==
{{wikibooks|Fractals/fractint}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090323085051/http://www.nahee.com/spanky/www/fractint/fractint.html Mirror of now-gone spanky.triumf.ca Fractint site]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20161001153925/http://fractint.org/ Fractint Development Team WWW pages] via the [[Wayback Machine]]

{{Fractal software}}
{{Fractals}}
{{Mathematics and art}}

[[Category:1988 software]]
[[Category:Fractal software]]
[[Category:Numerical software]]
[[Category:Cellular automaton software]]
[[Category:DOS software]]
[[Category:Atari ST software]]
[[Category:Proprietary freeware for Linux]]