Mandelbrot Madness JAVA!

Version 3.1 -- Technical Information

MMJ! File Listing
Supported File Types
Known Bugs
The MMJ! Wish List

MMJ! File Listing

Below is a listing of all the files using in Mandelbrot Madness JAVA! and the purpose they serve:

Mandel.class
Mandel$1.class
MandelView.class
MandelView$1.class
MandelView$2.class
MandelViewCanvas.class
WindowManager.class
MFrame.class
MandelObject.class These classes form the backbone of MMJ! Mandel.class is the primary program file and the one you will run to start the program. The MandelObject class represents the actual Mandelbrot or Julia set parameters and does the actual grunt work of calculating and drawing the Mandelbrot and Julia images. The MandelView classes represent the individual image windows, while MandelViewCanvas is a Canvas object that draws the represented MandelObject. WindowManager helps the program keep track of all open windows. MFrame forms the base class of many of the other classes. All files with a dollar sign ("$") in their names are anonymous classes, which are used (in this case) during the file opening/saving processes.

QMandel.class
MMJ2to1.class
MMJ2to1$1.class These classes implement the command line functionality of MMJ! QMandel handles the batch mode, while MMJ2to1 is the conversion utility. Note that QMandel cannot be run by itself, while MMJ2to1 can (although this is discouraged). See the command line documentation for more information.

MMJFileHandler.class
MMJFileHandler$1.class
MMJFileHandler$2.class
PALFileHandler.class
PALFileHandler$1.class
PALFileHandler$2.class These classes help to abstract the reading and writing of .MMJ and .PAL files. Putting this code into these classes helped reduce repeated code in several places, making my life easier.

MOBtoMMJ.class
MOBtoMMJ$1.class
MOBtoMMJ$2.class These classes help to abstract the conversions between the .MMJ and .MOB file formats.

Palette.class
RainbowPalette.class
GrayScalePalette.class
UserPalette.class These classes manage color palettes in MMJ! Palette.class is an abstract class from which the others are derived. UserPalette.class is used to create custom color scale palettes or when loading a palette from a file.

AboutDialog.class
ColorSelectDialog.class
InfoDialog.class
MessageDialog.class
PaletteSelectDialog.class
PaletteSelectDialog$1.class These classes represent the various dialog boxes you see throughout MMJ! Of all of these, PaletteSelectDialog is unique, since it does not derive from the Java Dialog class, but from MFrame above. (Long story.)

mandel.ico A Windows icon file, just because.

MmjBtn.class
WebMmjBtn.class
mmj.html Files needed to run MMJ! from within a Web browser. MmjBtn.class is a small applet that presents a button, that when clicked will launch MMJ! The HTML file simply contains the applet. Also included is WebMmjBtn.class, which can be used to place MMJ! on your personal web page. Please see the FAQ for information about using this file.

PaletteBuilder.class
PaletteBuilder$1.class
PaletteBuilder$2.class
PaletteCanvas.class
PaletteSizeDialog.class
PalAboutDialog.class
ColorRangeDialog.class
CopyColorRangeDialog.class
pb.ico These classes are part of the PaletteBuilder helper application that comes with MMJ! While PaletteBuilder uses some of classes listed above, these are the ones used exclusively by this application. (If you don't want to use PaletteBuilder, these files can be safely deleted.)

GIFEncoder.class
BitFile.class
BitUtils.class
LZWCompressor.class
LZWStringTable.class
ImageDescriptor.class
ScreenDescriptor.class These classes are part of the GIFEncoder package created by Adam Doppelt. They allow MMJ! to write images in the GIF format.

readme.html
docs/* User documentation (which you're reading right now!). While you can do without these, I wouldn't suggest it unless you know this program really well...

[Top]

Supported File Types

Mandelbrot Madness JAVA! supports three different file types for saving and retrieving data. The file types and how they are used are described below.

GIF files

The GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) format is a graphics file format first developed by CompuServe in 1987. GIF files support image compression and transparency, which have made it pretty much the de facto image format on the Web. GIF files are highly portable and viewers and editors are available for virtually ever platform imaginable. MMJ! uses GIF files to store the rendered image in a graphical format. MMJ! cannot open GIF files; it can only save them.

MMJ! uses GIFEncoder written by Adam Doppelt. GIFEncoder saves GIF files in the older GIF87 format, which should be viewable by almost any GIF viewer/editor.

Please read the GIF disclaimer concerning the Unisys GIF patent.

PAL files

PAL files store color palette information. MMJ! uses the JASC-PAL file format developed by Jasc Software (http://www.jasc.com/) and used in their popular Paint Shop Pro image editing software. I used the JASC-PAL format because it is simple to read and create, since it is merely a text file. Note that other programs may use this extension (such as the Microsoft PAL format), but MMJ! does not read these files. It will only read JASC-PAL files. You can create your own PAL files using the PaletteBuilder helper application. MMJ! can only read 16- and 256-color palettes.

MMJ files

MMJ files are an application-specific text file that stores parameter information for creating MMJ! images. Using MMJ files, you can store the exact parameters required to generate a given image and, combined with using a PAL file, you can store custom palette information as well. A MMJ and PAL file combination uses far less space than the corresponding GIF file, and can be read by MMJ! on any platform. If you want to show a friend a certain image you created, let them zoom in from that point, and save bandwidth sending it to them, this is the way to go!

It should be noted that the MMJ file format has changed between 2.x and 3.x. This was necessary to support zooming in Julia set images. These two file versions are not compatible. Version 3.x of MMJ! can read both versions of the file, but cannot write the 2.x version. Similarly, MMJ! 2.x cannot read a 3.x parameter file. A conversion utility is included as part of MMJ! You can learn more about this utility in the command line utilities section.

MOB files

MOB files are new as of version 3.1. A MOB file is a compressed binary file that contains both the parameter information of the .MMJ file and the palette information of the .PAL file. They can only be read by versions 3.1 and above of MMJ! Because of the ton of information surrounding them, its information is kept in another section, which we call the Introduction to the MOB File Format.

[Top]

Known Bugs

Unfortunately, even the best of programs have "bugs." (It's just that the best of 'em don't have as many!) Here are a few of the known bugs in MMJ! that I am working on fixing. Please do not report these; I already know about them. If you find what you think is a bug, follow these actions:

Check this list for known bugs first. If you can't find it here...
Check the FAQ to make sure what you found is really a bug and not a quirk of Java that has no workaround. If you can't find your problem there...
Mail me at jeff.darlington@pobox.com and give me the following information:
- The version of MMJ! you are using
- The Java virtual machine you are using
- The platform you are using (Win32, MacOS, UNIX, etc.)
- A thorough description of the problem, including a highly detailed list of the steps needed to recreate it

I can't guarantee that I can fix all problems, especially since I don't have access to all the platforms and VMs that you can run MMJ! on. However, I will certainly try. Now, as promised, here's that bug list:

When running MMJ! within a web browser and that browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, the Rainbow palette does not work. (A similar problem occurred with MMJ! 1.x.) The Rainbow palette works correctly with Netscape, and in some later versions of MSIE. I assume this is a bug in MSIE's Java implementation, and I have no idea how to fix it.

For general knowledge, if you have problems with the context (pop-up) menu, this is a bug in Java, not in MMJ! Refer to the FAQ for more information on this.

[Top]

The MMJ! Wish List

The "Wish List" is a list of additional features I'd like to implement in the near future for MMJ! Some are things that I would love to have (once I figure out how to do them); others are things I would have put in here, but I didn't have time or would have had to redesign the program from the ground up to include. Anyway, here's some things to look for in MMJ! v3.1 (or 4.0, or 2000...):

PNG (or other image format) support: Currently, MMJ! only supports writing images to GIFs. While this is good because of GIF's wide-spread usage, it has certain... er, legal repercussions. Ultimately, I will probably write out GIF support altogether, and probably replace it with PNG.
Copying to the system clipboard: This was originally intended to be a part of MMJ!, like in the Win32 version, but I quickly discovered that copying images to the system clipboard hasn't been implemented in Java yet. (String and text copying is fully implemented.) There is a huge movement in the Java programming community to have Sun correct this. Once they do, you can bet your lucky stars MMJ! will have it ready to go!
Complete compatibility with Win32 Mandelbrot Madness!: This is more a wish for Win32 MM! than for MMJ! but I wanted to include it. Most of the new "kewl" stuff added to MMJ! was originally intended to be added to the Win32 version, but I found my Visual C++ knowledge a little lacking. When (more like "if") I figure things out, hopefully, .MMJ and .PAL files will be interchangeable between the two versions. So Windows users can keep their fingers crossed....

[Top]

[Return to README]

Mandel.class Mandel$1.class MandelView.class MandelView$1.class MandelView$2.class MandelViewCanvas.class WindowManager.class MFrame.class MandelObject.class	These classes form the backbone of MMJ! Mandel.class is the primary program file and the one you will run to start the program. The MandelObject class represents the actual Mandelbrot or Julia set parameters and does the actual grunt work of calculating and drawing the Mandelbrot and Julia images. The MandelView classes represent the individual image windows, while MandelViewCanvas is a Canvas object that draws the represented MandelObject. WindowManager helps the program keep track of all open windows. MFrame forms the base class of many of the other classes. All files with a dollar sign ("$") in their names are anonymous classes, which are used (in this case) during the file opening/saving processes.
QMandel.class MMJ2to1.class MMJ2to1$1.class	These classes implement the command line functionality of MMJ! QMandel handles the batch mode, while MMJ2to1 is the conversion utility. Note that QMandel cannot be run by itself, while MMJ2to1 can (although this is discouraged). See the command line documentation for more information.
MMJFileHandler.class MMJFileHandler$1.class MMJFileHandler$2.class PALFileHandler.class PALFileHandler$1.class PALFileHandler$2.class	These classes help to abstract the reading and writing of .MMJ and .PAL files. Putting this code into these classes helped reduce repeated code in several places, making my life easier.
MOBtoMMJ.class MOBtoMMJ$1.class MOBtoMMJ$2.class	These classes help to abstract the conversions between the .MMJ and .MOB file formats.
Palette.class RainbowPalette.class GrayScalePalette.class UserPalette.class	These classes manage color palettes in MMJ! Palette.class is an abstract class from which the others are derived. UserPalette.class is used to create custom color scale palettes or when loading a palette from a file.
AboutDialog.class ColorSelectDialog.class InfoDialog.class MessageDialog.class PaletteSelectDialog.class PaletteSelectDialog$1.class	These classes represent the various dialog boxes you see throughout MMJ! Of all of these, PaletteSelectDialog is unique, since it does not derive from the Java Dialog class, but from MFrame above. (Long story.)
mandel.ico	A Windows icon file, just because.
MmjBtn.class WebMmjBtn.class mmj.html	Files needed to run MMJ! from within a Web browser. MmjBtn.class is a small applet that presents a button, that when clicked will launch MMJ! The HTML file simply contains the applet. Also included is WebMmjBtn.class, which can be used to place MMJ! on your personal web page. Please see the FAQ for information about using this file.
PaletteBuilder.class PaletteBuilder$1.class PaletteBuilder$2.class PaletteCanvas.class PaletteSizeDialog.class PalAboutDialog.class ColorRangeDialog.class CopyColorRangeDialog.class pb.ico	These classes are part of the PaletteBuilder helper application that comes with MMJ! While PaletteBuilder uses some of classes listed above, these are the ones used exclusively by this application. (If you don't want to use PaletteBuilder, these files can be safely deleted.)
GIFEncoder.class BitFile.class BitUtils.class LZWCompressor.class LZWStringTable.class ImageDescriptor.class ScreenDescriptor.class	These classes are part of the GIFEncoder package created by Adam Doppelt. They allow MMJ! to write images in the GIF format.
readme.html docs/*	User documentation (which you're reading right now!). While you can do without these, I wouldn't suggest it unless you know this program really well...