def mandel_pixel(c):
  """ calculates the color index of the mandelbrot plane point passed in the arguments """
  maxIt = 256
  z =  c   
  for i in range(maxIt):
      a = z * z
      z=a + c
      if a.real  >= 4.:
         return i
  return 256
 calculates the color index of the mandelbrot plane point passed in the arguments 
recipes/Python/579048_PythMandelbrot_Fractal/recipe-579048.py