Eleven years ago, I wrote a Mandelbrot set generator in JavaScript as a way to test out the then somewhat new Web Workers API, allowing me to make use of multiple cores and not tie up the UI thread with the calculations.

Recently I decided to see how much I could improve it with improvements to the web stack that have happened since then. The result was much faster than what I’d managed previously:

While at linux.conf.au earlier this year, I started hacking on a Mandelbrot Set fractal renderer implemented in JavaScript as a way to polish my JS skills. In particular, I wanted to get to know the HTML5 Canvas and Worker APIs.

The results turned out pretty well. Click on the image below to try it out:

Clicking anywhere on the fractal will zoom in. You'll need to reload the page to zoom out. Zooming in while the fractal is still being rendered will interrupt the previous rendering job.