Last updated by Rudy Rucker, April 2, 1017
The Chaos Software
As of April 2, 2017, the primary site for the Chaos executable, source, and manual is on GitHub.
Go to www.github.com/rudyrucker/chaos/
* Download the CHAOS executables
and support files from GitHub. After downloading the chaos.zip file, unzip the chaos.zip
file. It will create a Chaos directory and copy all the executables
and support files into the directory.
* Read or download the Chaos Manual on GitHub as a PDF.
*Get the Chaos Source at our GitHub site as well.
The software was written by Josh Gordon, Rudy Rucker and John Walker for Autodesk, Inc., with
Josh Gordon doing the lion's share of the programming work.
The 199 Autodesk release was based on the wonderful James Gleick book Chaos.
What's In Chaos
CHAOS has six modules.
MANDEL. A very fast Mandelbrot set program, incorporating: quadratic
and cubic Mandelbrots, various fill patterns, quadratic
and cubic Julias, and the gnarly "cubic Mandelbrot catalog" Rudy
set. The image in the background of this page is the RHORSE.FRP
parameter set for the Rudy set. You can also run these rules with the modern Ultra Fractal software instead of with CHAOS, as described on Rucker's blog post, "The Rudy Set as the ultimate Cubic Mandelbrot."
MAGNETS... A Pendulum and Magnets program showing chaotic
physical motion.
ATTRACT. A Strange Attractors program showing some
of the Hall of Famers as the Lorenz Attractor, the Logistic Map,
the Yorke Attractor, the Henon Attractor, etc.
GAME. A "Chaos Game", which is a Barnsley Fractals program showing Iterated Function System fractals such as the
famous "fern".
FORGE. A "Fractal Forgeries" program that
shows mountain ranges based on random fractals.
TOY. A "Toy Universes" program that shows some cellular automata.
Using DOSBox to Run CHAOS
The CHAOS program ran under earlier versions of Windows as a full-screen DOS session, accessible by clicking on one of the batch files in the Chaos directory. But starting with Windows
XP with service pack SP2 and cointuing into Windows 7, CHAOS no longer runs directly in Windows.
The fix! Run CHAOS using the open source DOSBox ware, downloadable for free at the site http://www.dosbox.com. As of March, 2017, the latest DOSBox build is 0.74. You don't need to download a "Frontend."
Details about using DOSBox are on our GitHub site. |