🚀 go-pugleaf

Jon Noring / Barry Smith reported problems while running Fractint and
the image generated by the command-line options:

  type=complexnewton corners=-6/5/5/-4 params=12/2/12/2 maxiter=2500
  periodicity=0

First the good news:  I just generated that fractal with no problems
using the current internal developer's test version of Fractint on
my 486/50DX2.  Took 21 minutes, 39 seconds for a 1024x768x256 image.

The big difference (both in terms of speed and in terms of
eventual success) was the fact that my PC had a math coprocessor
onboard and the other PCs didn't.  The newton algorithms involve
power functions, and the parameters used by this particular
complexnewton involve a *lot* of powers, and this really stresses
our internal math routines on FPU-less PCs.  In this case, it stressed
them until they broke.

My guess as to why one fellow got a visible error message while the other
got a trashed screen is that the second fellow's system threw his
PC partially (but not completely) out of its graphics video state
when it attempted to display that internal error message, and 
Fractint's graphics<->text video logic couldn't handle what was left.

                   Bert Tyler   (bert.tyler@satalink.com)
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