1. Cutting out the parameter block from an email.
2. Opening an editor and pasting in the text.
3. Saving the text to a file.
4. Possibly all the above for the formula block as well if you need to re-use the same formula for several images.
5. Starting Fractint and (finally!) calculating and viewing the image.
OK well maybe it''s not all *that* arduous! but it's a slog all the same and one that gave direction to my first tentative fumblings in the world of windows programming. True to my aim in life of make things easier for fractint users may I present the solution to the above kerfuffle (n. uk, a fuss or bother, unnecessary manipulations) :
Paste & go As you can see from the screen shot below it's pretty simple...
There's a text box for receiving the par text, you can paste it in here with the usual window shortcut key (ctrl-v) or the paste button, you can also edit text here if it needs tweaking.
By clicking the FRM button you can switch to a second text box wherin you can paste and edit formula text for those pars that use type = formula, this is very handy for developing new formulae as it saves manually jumping back and forth between editor and fractint.
And clicking the great big GO button does a paste followed by a launch thus performing all necessary tasks in one swell foop!
(thanks are due to Tim Wegner for that fine spoonerism :-) )
If you enjoy the image and want to keep the par or formula then hit the Add to archive button to apppend the text to a file named pastearc.par (if in par mode) or pastearc.frm (in formula mode).
There's even a handy button that eliminates the scrambling sometimes caused by email systems that peppers a par with the dreaded =3D syndrome... nasty!
As the final touch you can select any of three configurable sets of command line parameters to be fed to fractint along with the image data, marvellous!
It's all liberally sprinkled with tips that pop up when you hold the mouse cursor over a button and a help button provides a screenful of more detailed assistance should it be required :-)