Here is a test of an escape time fractal with an exotic generating formula.

Now this discussion goes deep into the weeds of programming and development tools. Feel free to skip it if you are just here for the pictures.

Often a fractal program will have a way to add new code to implement formulas and other ideas that the base program does not provide. Today’s picture is an example. Typically this is done in a custom scripting language.

Such a scripting language is not as efficient as a compiled program, and does not have all the features of a full general purpose programming language. I was too lazy to invent a new language, and then have to invest in debugging and optimizing it to do the things I want to do as fast as I want it to. Especially when I was already working in a perfectly good and familiar language, C#. So, in my program the scripting or add-on language is C#.

One of the core elements of VisualStudio is the Roslyn Compiler for C# and other languages. Roslyn is also a component of the .Net framework. You can use it to compile and execute new code within a program. I can write fractal or generative art hacks in C# code, and build and run optimized code without leaving the executing program.

You may ask why bother? Since I have the source code, I could just exit, modify the source code, compile and run. Several reasons, the first is probably the loss of “momentum” going through that stop, edit, compile, run cycle. There is also reproducibility, if I save the ‘recipe’ for an image, and then change the core program, the recipe may produce a different image, or fail entirely. Instead, the custom code changes are saved as part of the recipe. I can create a large number of variations, without ever changing the core program, and they have a high probability of working in the future.