Java application for drawing line fractals. Allows one to set the motif, base shape, and recursion depth.
For more information on fractals, please see Wikipedia or Mathworld. Mathworld's entry on Lindenmayer Systems has some nice links to some of the fractals this application can generate.
To run the application, you'll need to install Java (version 11), download the jar file, and run it (on Linux with java -jar FractalApplication.jar, on Windows/Mac by clicking on things).
To compile the code yourself, clone the repo and do:
cd src
javac *.java
java FractalApplication
Or with make:
cd src
make
make run
This code was written around the year 2000. I've made no changes apart from turning the Applet into JFrame (applets are dead...), porting it to Java 11, fixing linter warnings, and converting the html documentation to markdown. Please consider that this is >20-year old code (forEach, Eclipse, git, etc. did not exist back then), and I am aware that things would be done differently today.
Base-motif fractals are formed by repeatedly substituting line segments with a figure called the motif. The initial set of line segments is called the base curve. The application consists of three subpanels which display the base curve, the motif, and the fractal generated from them.
This list allows you to display some well-known fractals. It automatically sets the base curve and motif in the panels below.
The base curve panel allows you to choose the initial set of lines from which the fractal is generated. It can be a line, a triangle or a square. When the bidirectional option is chosen, the motif will be applied to both sides of each line.
The motif panel allows you to draw a motif that will be applied recursively to each line of the base curve. You can move a point by clicking in the red circle, and dragging it somewhere else. Also, you can add a point by clicking near a line (but not in the red circle). The fractal is automatically updated once te mouse is released.
The buttons below the motif allow you to mirror it along the vertical axis, center it on the canvas, and reset the motif to the default.
This panel shows the fractal that is generated from the base curve and the motif. The +++ button applies the motif to all lines in the fractal, and the --- goes one step back. The number of lines in the fractal is also displayed. It is limited to 200000 lines to avoid memory overloads.
Sometimes, the fractal grows out of its frame. The "Center" button centers the fractal on the frame. The "Auto Center" option continuously centers the fractal.