Keith Vetter 2003-12-01 : This image of a Black Spleenwort fern is often called the Barnsley's Fern after Michael Barnsley. It is one of the best known of the Iterated Function System (IFS) fractals. Actually, while everyone calls it a fractal technically it's not--it's not self-similar but self-affine.
An IFS takes a point and performs an affine transformation--translation, rotation and contraction--on it, then repeats. For the fern, there are four affine transformation that are used with certain probabilities.
See also IFS for a page with more general IFS fractals.
DKF: Oooh! I like it!
##+########################################################################## # # Fern.tcl - description # by Keith Vetter -- November 30, 2003 # # This image of a Black Spleenwort fern is often called the Barnsley's # Fern after Michael Barnsley. It is one of the best known of the # Iterated Function System (IFS) fractals (technically it's not a # fractal but everyone calls it one). An IFS takes a point and # performs an affine transformation--translation, rotation and # contraction--on it, then repeats. For the fern, there are four # affine transformation that are used with certain probabilities. # Define our affine transformations # (x,y) <== (rx(cos(A)) - sy(sin(B)) + h, rx(sin(A)) + sy(cos(B)) + k) # (x,y) <== (ax + by + h, cx + dy + k) array set TRANS { - {P a b h c d k} 0 {0.02 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.27 0} 1 {0.15 -.139 0.263 0.57 0.246 0.224 -.036} 2 {0.13 0.17 -.215 0.408 0.222 0.176 0.0893} 3 {0.70 0.781 0.034 0.1075 -.032 0.739 0.27} } array set S {title "Fern Fractal" W 500 H 500 color green} proc OnePixel {} { global S xx yy TRANS # Pick which transformation to use set rand [expr {rand()}] for {set i 0} {$i < 3} {incr i} { set p [lindex $TRANS($i) 0] if {$rand < $p} break set rand [expr {$rand - $p}] } # (x,y) <== (ax + by + h, cx + dy + k) foreach {p a b h c d k} $TRANS($i) break foreach xx [expr {$a*$xx + $b*$yy + $h}] \ yy [expr {$c*$xx + $d*$yy + $k}] break set sx [expr {$S(W) * $xx}] ;# Map to screen coordinates set sy [expr {$S(H) - ($S(H) * $yy)}] ;# Make fern grow upwards .c create rect $sx $sy $sx $sy -fill $S(color) -outline {} return } proc Run {} { foreach id [after info] {after cancel $id} ;# Be safe if {$::S(go)} { OnePixel after 1 Run } } proc tracer {var1 var2 op} { if {$::S(go)} { .start config -state disabled .stop config -state normal Run } else { .start config -state normal .stop config -state disabled } } proc Resize {W h w} { foreach ::S(H) $h ::S(W) $w break Reset } proc Reset {} { .c delete all set ::xx [expr {rand()}] set ::yy [expr {rand()}] } proc DoDisplay {} { global S wm title . $S(title) pack [frame .ctrl -relief ridge -bd 2 -padx 5 -pady 5] \ -side right -fill both -ipady 5 pack [frame .top -relief ridge -bd 2] -side top -fill x pack [frame .screen -bd 2 -relief raised] -side top -fill both -expand 1 canvas .c -relief raised -bd 2 -height $S(H) -width $S(W) -bg black pack .c -side top -in .screen -fill both -expand 1 set colors {red orange yellow green blue cyan purple violet white black} foreach color $colors { radiobutton .top.b$color -width 1 -padx 0 -pady 0 -bg $color \ -variable S(color) -value $color bind .top.b$color <3> [list .c config -bg $color] } eval pack [winfo children .top] -side left -fill y DoCtrlFrame bind all <Key-F2> {console show} bind .c <Configure> {Resize %W %h %w} trace variable S(go) w tracer update } proc DoCtrlFrame {} { option add *Button.borderWidth 4 button .start -text "Start" -command {set S(go) 1} .start configure -font "[font actual [.start cget -font]] -weight bold" option add *Button.font [.start cget -font] button .stop -text "Stop" -command {set S(go) 0} button .reset -text "Reset" -command Reset button .about -text About -command [list tk_messageBox -title $::S(title) \ -message "$::S(title)\nby Keith Vetter, November 2003"] grid .start -in .ctrl -row 1 -sticky ew grid .stop -in .ctrl -row 2 -sticky ew grid .reset -in .ctrl -row 3 -sticky ew -pady 10 grid rowconfigure .ctrl 50 -weight 1 grid .about -in .ctrl -row 100 -sticky ew } DoDisplay set S(go) 1