Migration of hyper-fractal analysis from visual basic 6 to C# .Net

Abstract

In Grossu et al. (Comput. Phys. Commun. 184 (2013) 1812–1813) we presented Hyper-Fractal Analysis, a visual tool for estimating the fuzzy fractal dimension of images and 4D objects. As Visual Basic 6 could be considered an outdated language, with limited Object-Oriented Programming capabilities, migrating the application to C# .Net was treated in high priority. Following the goal of creating a highly reusable fractal analysis library, the code was also refactored to SOLID. Together with various improvements, the.Net version is also providing new tools for iso-fractal areas identification. The project success was confirmed by a comparative old/new version study. On the other hand, the most relevant functionalities were covered by unit tests. New version program summaryProgram Title: Hyper-Fractal Analysis v05CPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/z9knmny56p.1Licensing provisions: GPLv2Programming language: C# 7.3 /.Net Framework 4.7.1Journal reference of previous version: Computer Physics Communications 184, Issue 7 (2013) 1812–1813Does the new version supersede the previous version?: YesNature of problem: Estimating the fractal dimension of images and multi-dimensional objects.Solution method: Optimized version of the fuzzy box-counting algorithm.Reasons for the new version: Migration from VB6 to C# .Net, adding new tools for iso-fractal areas identification.Summary of revisions:•The main goal of this work was creating a highly reusable fractal analysis library. Following this purpose Hyper-Fractal Analysis v04 [1] was migrated from VB6 (an outdated language, with limited OOP capabilities) to C# .Net [2]. This opportunity was also used for refactoring the code to SOLID [3].•The box-counting algorithm [4] implemented in the previous version is limited to 4D objects. In current version the number of dimensions is limited only by the available resources.•The previous fuzzy [5,6] box-counting implementation is accepting only 0-255 shades of gray windows. The new version allows defining parametrizable fuzzy band-pass filters.•An important attention was also paid on developing new tools for identification of iso-fractal areas (the sets of points characterized by the same local fractal dimension [7]). This functionality is expected to be of particular interest in medical image analysis [7-13].•The Windows Forms GUI (Fig. 1) was completely reconsidered on top of the Model View Presenter pattern [14].•For an increased reliability and for minimizing the regression risks during future developments the most relevant functionalities were covered by unit tests [15].