Raspberry Pi – Mandelbrot pictures

The Python book I’m using is Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours, by Ivan Van Laningham. It’s been around since 2000, so it’s quite a standard on the subject. There are many example programs listed in the book, both running from the command-line as well as those using the Tkinter GUI.

Chapter 23 introduces us to the Mandelbrot Set and gives a 708-line Python program to calculate the familiar colourful graphs one sees in high school mathematics.

The partial program is as follows:

#!/usr/bin/python

from Tkinter import *
from Canvas import Line,Rectangle
import sys
import string
from colormap import *
from tkFileDialog import *

class Msize:
     def __init__(self,xr=400,yr=400,xs=-2.0,ys=-1.25,xw=2.6,yw=2.6):
          self.xresolution = xr
          self.yresolution = yr
          self.cxsize = self.xresolution
          self.cysize = self.yresolution

...

     def clacker(self,event=0):
          self.pop.post(event.x_root,event.y_root)

if __name__ == "__main__":
     if len(sys.argv)>1:
          ncolors=string.atoi(sys.argv[1])
     else:
          ncolors=32
     root=Tk()
     mandel=Mandel(ncolors,root)

     mandel.root.mainloop()

To avoid all this manual input, the author has generously published them all on his website:

http://www.pauahtun.org/TYPython

Here is how the program looks on the Raspberry Pi when choosing an area to expand and then after the calculations are finished:

As you can see by the glyphs on the program window, the book’s author is a keen student of Mayan history and archeology.

“A thousand years ago, the Mayans who built a great civilization in the jungles of Central America believed that mistakes in calendrical calculations were the fault not of the scribes or the astronomers, but were the result of direct intervention by the gods.  I believe this too.  If you find any errors in this book, please notify gods A through Z of the Mayan pantheon.  Visit them at The Mayan Gods, or report to them directly at http://www.pauahtun.org/cgi-bin/tothegods.py.”

Here are some of the other beautiful Mandelbrot pictures produced on the Raspberry Pi:

Pic 01

Pic 02

Pic 03

Pic 04

Pic 05

Pic 06

Pic 07

Pic 08

Pic 09

Pic 10

Pic 11

Pic 12

Pic 13

Pic 14

Pic 15

Pic 16