WWW Interface

Robert P. Munafo, 1996 Feb 28.

A possible www interface ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overview ~~~~~~~~ The goal is to provide a real-time interactive Mandelbrot Set browser program, which can be viewed by anyone through www using a line-oriented (text-only) interface. (See ASCII Graphics and the pictures throughout mu-ency to see why this is possible)

We assume that only static files with hyperlinks are possible; we also assume that the web browser program will load a file only if (and when) the user "jumps" to that file.

We can make the browser fully interactive without precomputing all of the images by intercepting the file-system requests as they are made by the FTP daemon. After a file is requested, a set of 16 new files are generated (representing the new views that will be accessible from the file just requested). The next FTP file request for one of these 16 files will block until all 16 files are done being generated.

(Alternatively, each FTP request for a frame could block while the frame gets drawn. However, this means the users always wait for computation to take place.)

Up to 16000 such files will be maintained on the hard disk, then old ones will be deleted in the order that they were created. If an FTP request came through for one of the old files, it could then block while the file is recomputed.

Screen Display: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 23 lines, 79 characters wide. One line for machine and file identification, one line for center and size, and one line for WWW prompt. (We avoid 24 and 80 to allow for wierd terminals, extra UI layers like a more prompt, etc.)

http://mandel.org/pub/mandel/interact/user1/frame37/f36_choice7 Center: -0.759 +0.402i Width: 2.599 1 -_ 2 "_ ._e 3 [1] [2] [3] .`m"' [4] 4 ._e.,r"r,._ 5 '.Y^' ^\/- 6 , , ,_ ^\, .F` . _, 7 :a\%_,_(*_r--*-- -"--\_"r _, v`, 8 [5] [6] -@,[7]^` [8]_~`(/*- 9 -_m_:-"` -.'" . -c ., .^Y,` ^/. . 1 "\.,c, *`_:_ .TC^ ^^)" 2 dd^Y""""-Ya_ ]F b_, 3 [9] :, -m-'[10] '*,]` [11] [12] b^` 4 "m__/F` '/ ._*` 5 _______"___/____._r~ ^` :~` 6 " ' ' '^)__r, ~e, 7 :"^' -@- _/] '@c 8 [13] ^^%a[14],__._a* ', [15] [16] Cmc 9 ..:7rF"""d^@'` 'Y_ .(__ . T; ` *- ""v, .rv~( 1-16, Up, Back, Help After choosing [6], they would see this: http://mandel.org/pub/mandel/interact/user1/frame38/f37_choice6 Center: -1.097 +0.500i Width: 1.299 1 2 3 [1] [2] [3] [4] 4 5 . .__ 6 *Ye,cm' 7 aem'Tmm. 8 [5] [6] [7] [8] `._Y)'^ 9 -YY[, . _. __'%%- 1 v_mF[a_]@"` 2 ._ _ 'T"@^`"~ 3 [9] [10], ,, [11] ._[12] 4 --\, ., 'm-` -m@)-* 5 -"--Lcdr:, ''@e_ ._- _^%- 6 '`%F*/b.-__v""@\,%@e._ "*C^ 7 ^-"@, '"^`^^`'^^^"'"/Yc_ '"C` 8 [13] [14]a,-am*^ [15] ^"Tm_ :@F [16] 9 .. '^*F"" 'Te .F . ^b,. , -vm" '\'- 1-16, Up, Back, Help After choosing [11]: http://mandel.org/pub/mandel/interact/user1/frame39/f38_choice11 Center: -0.9647 +0.4095i Width: 0.6500 1 2 3 [1] [2] [3] [4] 4 5 6 _ 7 -aL_vY 8 [5] [6] [7] [8] :/$*F 9-- '^-$" .^--\.-- 1 ,(^ ._ ., 2 '^F-` .'`c, . .7@^_. 3._--`_,[9] [10]r"'` [11] [12]\@@Le@* 4 '"C_ . :, .7 -$c... . . '~")@e, 5 -^')\/"m:-r,.:b- _, ^`'@b_@_ ._/L .__ ^%)" 6 .'F*beF"_ -F` . .,.^\@@@*_ Y^_, ._a$`m(@- 7 '' _`dF"be@@"_ dL._'*-@F^'*@-., ,-/@/L ,., *Y@@`,` 8 [13].-m\d`'`^`*@c:,-[14]m%@, _Cedbe^@*"[15]^%` [16]\T/` 9 ^)e-Y"*^ $_b*^^^' ''^~ -(aeea@@ __, -dC^^` . --*\e__, '` `" d(.\d, _m_@` 1-16, Up, Back, Help

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This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 1999 Aug 17.

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