Developer with some grey hairs

Ubuntu 9.10 and the Google Go Emacs Mode

After some hours with google go I recognize the emacs mode in the source directory of the current distribution.

It is easy to install the mode for ubuntu 9.10 (karmic). First install the emacs with

sudo apt-get install emacs23

After that copy the the two .el files from you google ~/go/misc/emacs directory to

/usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp

Now create a .emacs file in you home directory and add the following to lines.

(add-to-list ‘load-path “/usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp” t)
(require ‘go-mode-load)

Now the google mode is activated after loading a .go file.

Splintering of Empires

More about this nice project Link

Google Go and the Mandelbrot Set Part II

The following code is my solution for parallel calculation of a mandelbrot set with google go.

package main

import ( "image";
        "image/png";
	"bufio";
	"fmt";
	"os";
	"math";
	"time"; )

type PixelCalc struct {  x int;
     	                 y int;
                         cx float64;
	                 cy float64; }

func PointIteration(in chan *PixelCalc,ready chan int,img *image.RGBA){

	for {
		pixelCalc :=  <- in; 

		xt := float64(0);
		yt := float64(0);
		x := float64(0);
		y := float64(0);
		quadValue := float64(0);
		iter := 0;

		for quadValue <= 255.0 && iter < 255 {
			xt= ( x * x ) - ( y * y) + pixelCalc.cx;
			yt= ( float64(2.0) * x * y ) + pixelCalc.cy;
			x = xt;
			y = yt;
			iter++;

			quadValue = ( x * x ) + ( y * y );
		}

		color := new(image.NRGBAColor);
		color.A = 255;
		iter8 := uint8(iter);
		color.R = iter8;
		color.G = iter8;
		color.B = iter8;
		img.Set(pixelCalc.x,pixelCalc.y,color);

		ready <- 1;
	}
}

func main(){
	start := time.Seconds();

	const pictureSize = 1000;

	img := image.NewRGBA(pictureSize,pictureSize);

	f, err := os.Open("mandel.png", os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREAT, 0666);
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Printf("Can't create picture file\n");
	}

	calc := make(chan *PixelCalc,pictureSize*pictureSize);
	out := make(chan int,pictureSize*pictureSize);

	for i:=0;i<4;i++{
		go PointIteration(calc,out,img);
	}

	deltaX := math.Fabs(float64(-2.0 - 1.0)) / float64(pictureSize);
        deltaY := math.Fabs(float64(-1.0 - 1.0)) / float64(pictureSize);

	cx := float64(-2.0);

	for x:=0;x<pictureSize;x++{
		cx+=deltaX;
		cy := float64(-1.0);

		for y:=0;y<pictureSize;y++{
	    		cy+=deltaY;
			pixelCalc := new(PixelCalc);
			pixelCalc.cx = cx;
			pixelCalc.cy = cy;
			pixelCalc.x  = x;
			pixelCalc.y  = y;

			calc <- pixelCalc;
		}
	}	

	for i:=0;i<pictureSize*pictureSize;i++{
		<- out;
	}

  	w := bufio.NewWriter(f);
	png.Encode(w,img);
	w.Flush();

	fmt.Printf("Seconds needed %d\n",time.Seconds() - start);
}

At this time the go compiler has some bugs regarding the multiprocessor support. But sometimes I can see the use of my two processors.

I hope there will fix that bug fast. The first workaround for that bug is the GOMAXPROCS environment variable. I set this to 2. But this did’nt help everytime.

Link to part 1

Google Go and the Mandelbrot Set

Learning a new programming language is fun. Here is my version of calculating the mandelbrot set and save the result as a PNG picture with Google Go.

package main

import (   "image";
           "image/png";
           "bufio";
	   "fmt";
	   "os";
           "math";
           "time"; )

func PointIteration( cx, cy, maxValue float64, maxIter uint8) uint8{
     quadValue := float64(0.0);
     iter := uint8(0);
     x := float64(0.0);
     y := float64(0.0);

    for quadValue <= maxValue && iter < maxIter {
        xt:= ( x * x ) - ( y * y) + cx;
        yt:= ( float64(2.0) * x * y ) + cy;
        x = xt;
        y = yt;
        iter++;
        quadValue = ( x * x ) + ( y * y );
    }
    return iter;
}

func main(){
    start := time.Seconds();     

    const pictureSize = 500;
    img := image.NewRGBA(pictureSize,pictureSize);

    f, err := os.Open("mandel.png", os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREAT, 0666);
    if err != nil {
       fmt.Printf("Can't create picture file\n");
    }

    deltaX := math.Fabs(float64(-2.0 - 1.0)) / float64(pictureSize);
    deltaY := math.Fabs(float64(-1.0 - 1.0)) / float64(pictureSize);

    cx := float64(-2.0);
    for x:=0;x<pictureSize;x++{
        cx+=deltaX;
        cy := float64(-1.0);
        for y:=0;y<pictureSize;y++{
           cy+=deltaY;
           iter := PointIteration(cx,cy,255.0,255);

           color := new(image.NRGBAColor);
           color.A = 255;
           color.R = iter;
           color.G = iter;
           color.B = iter;
           img.Set(x,y,color);
	}
     }

     w := bufio.NewWriter(f);
     png.Encode(w,img);
     w.Flush();

     fmt.Printf("Seconds needed %d\n",time.Seconds() - start);
}

And here the result.

Next step is trying to improve the speed by using goroutines and channels.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

The best explanation of the current finance crisis that I have seen so far.