Try this Mandelbrot program I have written

During the last three weeks I have been amusing myself learning the java programming language.  It hasn't been so easy as at the age of 84 learning and remembering new stuff is harder than it used to be! I have had some help from my son Claude.

To give me inspiration I decided to use my interest in the Mandelbrot set to get to grips with the java language.  I created a program which displays the whole set and you can outline any area you think might be interesting to examine it more closely.

There is a limit to the minimum size of area, due to the limitations of computer precision and it's unavoidable.  However there is plenty of interesting stuff there.

I believe that to see the Mandelbrot set as anything more than a pretty picture or a boring mathematical formula, you need to be mathematically inclined.  The fascination, for me, lies in the mysterious ability of this formula to produce extraordinary patterns from apparently humdrum repetition of a formula.  Looking at the patterns, I am struck by the similarity to many natural forms: Could it be that natural forms, such as a leaf or a flower, have as their formal basis a mathematical formula? Is mathematics more pervasive in the universe than we have heretofore imagined?

There is also the weird phenomenon of little pieces of the set cropping up at some distance from the main chunk, similar in shape but facing in different directions and connected to it by untraceably fine filaments (there are no isolated pieces, they say, and I also suspect that every distant piece is connected to the main by only one path.)
In case anyone wants to explore for themselves, this is a link to the file of my program which I have placed online for anyone to download and try.  To run it, or any other java-based program, you need "java runtime environment" which you probably already have on your computer, but you can download it at the Oracle website if you don't have it.
Once you have opened my program, use your mouse to draw a rectangle somewhere interesting, then press ENTER.  Drawing the rectangle is largely automatic as it has to be horizontal and have certain proportions, so you only need draw the top side of it.  A little practice will soon give you the idea. Email me if you need help.  Read the info on the left of the screen. "Page Up" increase the precision at high magnifications, but also takes longer to draw the picture - perhaps ten seconds or more depending on your  machine's speed..

Possibly you can also open the file in a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad, if you want to fiddle with it and make alterations.