.TH XDLA n "31 August 1990"
.SH NAME
xdla \- generate a "Diffusion Limited Aggregate Fractal" in an X window
.SH SYNOPSIS
xdla [
.B \-display
.I display
] [
.B \-geometry
.I geometry
] [
.B \-fg
.I color
] [
.B \-bg
.I color
] [
.B \-border
.I width
] [
.B \-expire
.I expire
|
.B \-decay
.I expire
] [
.B \-lifetime
.I lifetime
] [
.B \-folds
.I folds
] [
.B \-lightning
|
.B \-flash
] [
.B \-lightningcolor
.I color
] [
.B \-shape
.I shape
] [
.B \-root
] [
.B \-help
] [
.B \-update
.I update
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Xdla
generates a diffusion limited aggregate fractal, as described in a
recent issue of
.IR "Scientific American" .
Some features have been added, and there are some optomizations for
the default case (instead of letting the new particle wander all over
an empty screen, we constrain it to a vicinity of the existing mass of
particles).
.PP
All command-line options up to
.B \-border
behave the same as their counterparts in X toolkit programs (see
.IR X (1)).
The
.B \-border
option is used to specify the border around the already existing mass
(as per the optomization mentioned above) (the default is 10).  The
.B \-expire
and
.B \-decay
options (they are synonymous) are used to specify the lifetime of
stationary particles, while 
.B \-lifetime
specifies the lifetime of a moving particle (all default to 0, that is
to say,
infinite lifetimes).  The
.B \-folds
option controls the complexity of the fractal, and must be either 4,
6, or 8.
Specifying 
.B \-lightning
or
.B \-flash
(they are synonymous) will produce flashes of further fractal
development as the fractal is drawn, and
.B \-lightningcolor
can be used to specify the color of the lightning.  Specifying
.B \-root
will cause the program to run on the root window.  Specifying 
.B \-help
will produce a usage message.  The
.B \-update
option can be used to specify the frequency of updates (default 20).
.PP
If the program is not running in the root window, typing 'q' in it
will cause it to exit.
.SH SEE ALSO
X(1)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
A usage message is printed when illegal command line options are
provided.
.SH BUGS
The
.B \-shape
option may not work, and is not documented in the DESCRIPTION section
of this man page.
.SH AUTHOR
trost%reed@cse.ogi.edu