I have just released a new version of propane, and found this dependant application Julia Explorer by Jonathon Scott (aka jscottpilgrim). Which fortunately still works with my latest release. I added the gui.

A video of my desktop

The video explorer inspired me to have a go at the ‘Julia Set’ challenge at Rosetta Code were I used the ruby built in Complex. I tried wrote my own Complex class to see if it would be more efficient (not much more so it seems) but it was an interesting exercise:-

# frozen_string_literal: true

# My Attempt to create a more efficient Complex
class MyComplex
  attr_accessor :real, :imag

  def initialize(real, imag)
    @real = real
    @imag = imag
  end

  # multiply complex number by another complex no
  def *(other)
    a = real
    b = imag
    c = other.real
    d = other.imag
    @real = a * c - b * d
    @imag = a * d + b * c
    self
  end

  # adds a given complex number
  def +(other)
    @real += other.real
    @imag += other.imag
    self
  end

  # computes the magnitude
  def abs
    Math.hypot(real, imag)
  end

  def to_s
    format('(%<real>0.2f+%<imag>0.2fi)', real: real, imag: imag)
  end
end

Here’s my ‘julia sketch’ code:-

load_library :my_complex
attr_reader :max_iter, :time
CONST = MyComplex.new(-0.835, -0.2321)

def settings
  size(640, 480)
end

def setup
  sketch_title 'Julia Set'
  @max_iter = 360
  color_mode HSB, 360, 100, 100
  load_pixels
end

def draw
  grid(width, height) do |x, y|
    i = max_iter
    z = MyComplex.new(map1d(x, 0..width, -1.4..1.4), map1d(y, 0..height, -1.0..1.0))
    while z.abs < 2 && i -= 1
      z *= z
      z += CONST
    end
    pixels[x + width * y] = color((360 * i) / max_iter, 100, i)
  end
  update_pixels
  fill 0
  text CONST.to_s, 530, 400
  no_loop
end

Which I used to explore some of the classic julia sets (see Wikipedia):-