- Authored and Contributed by
- Ronald Joe Record
- Restrictions
- Copyright 1993, 1994 Ronald Joe Record
- Availability
-
The mathrec source code is freely redistributable. The author maintains
binary distributions for Caldera OpenLinux 3.1, OpenServer, UnixWare 7
and Open UNIX 8. These distributions and the source code are available via:
- Description
-
The idea here is to calculate and display an aggregating particle.
In order to accomplish this, a modified random walk algorithm is used.
Initial spore(s) are randomly "seeded" in the center quarter of the screen.
Subsequent "spores" randomly enter a rectangular neighborhood of a seed
and "randomly walk" toward the seed. When within a pixel of a previously
existing spore, the new spore "sticks". I called the program "spore"
because of the similar look to a mushroom spore print.
The colors in the image represent the "age" of spores. After N spores have
been "stuck", the color index is incremented.
- Acknowledgements
-
The algorithm was derived from lectures given by Dietmar Saupe at the
University of California at Santa Cruz. Assistance with colormaps and
spinning color wheels and X was gleaned from Hiram Clawson and Stacey Campbell.
- Build
-
To build the spore binary, either use the Imakefile or the sample makefile,
Makefile.std. If your system doesn't support prototypes, uncomment the
PROTODEFINE line of the Imakefile.
After modifying the Imakefile appropriately, either use "xmkmf" or "imake"
to create a Makefile. Then just type "make" to compile spore.
The manual page can be formatted by typing "nroff -man spore.man > spore.1".
- Install
-
To install spore, copy the spore binary to the desired location (the sample
makefile puts it in /usr/local/bin)
Copy the formatted man page to wherever you keep your local doc (i use
/usr/local/man/cat1 for imaging software), then add that location
to your MANPATH.
- Productivity
- None
- Safety
- I have used this for years without harm.
- Work Planned
- None
- Documentation
- manual page.
- Verification
-
You can test spore by just invoking it with no arguments. It should display
a 512x480 image. Some workstations may be slow to calculate and display a
map as there are lots of calculations involved.
Some "interesting" ways to run spore are as follows :
% spore -F -n 10 -d
(use the full screen, calculate 10 maps in demo mode)
% spore -R
(display on the root window)
% spore -o sporeprint.ppm
(calculate and display with default parameters and save the resulting image
as a PPM file called sporeprint.ppm. this can be viewed later using xv or
any PPM viewing utility)
- Feedback
-
Ideas, comments, additions, deletions, suggestions, bug reports, code review,...
e-mail Ronald Record at rr@ronrecord.com