Ooh, I did my own programming of the mandelbrot set when I was younger.
It's "just" a plot of complex number coordinates run through an iterative function. For each coordinate the magnitude of the function output would usually grow larger and larger.
If say after 1000 iteratations, the magniture is under 4, then then you consider the starting coordinate to be in the set, otherwise it's out of the set.
Simple as that, so no-one expected the set to have such equisite detail and structure.
Being in the set is a binary measure, so a true plot is monochrome.
This doesn't belong in the jokes thread!