Paul Vanukoff wrote:

> Seriously is there a person(s) to send suggestions to?

This is where the POV-Ray Technical Assistance Group can play a role.
We are around to hear peoples suggestions for the program. Like any
other POV-Ray user however we can only make your wishes known to the
POV-Team and cannot guarantee that they will be interested in what
you propose. You can read more about what the TAG's role is and how
to contact the individual TAG members by following this link -

http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/pov-tag.txt

Since I am one of the TAG members your suggestion has been heard.
If you can sell me and the other TAG members on it we will try to
sell the POV-Team on it :)


> Can we have a vote on this?

The POV-Team as far as I know only adds new features that really
interest them, there is a great public outcry for, or someone
sends in a patch that is too good to pass up. There is no voting
system in place and I doubt there will be one at any time soon.


> Who else would be interested in these capabilities?

Good question --

Some suggestions, good news, and bad news:

1.) If you really want a new feature added to the program it is best if
    you make an attempt to discuss it here in these groups - as you are
    doing now. Discussions on new features have the benefit that they give
    a greater number of people a chance to comment on the feasibility of
    the new feature as well as it gives us a gauge of how many people
    would actually be interested in it. If no one is getting excited
    about your proposal then there is little chance it will be added
    any time soon (see also 4).

2.) Present your suggestion in such a way that it is obvious what the
    feature should do functionally and what benefit it will have by
    adding it to the program. Simply saying "I want finish_map" added
    to the program is not sufficient to sell the feature to the POV-Team.

3.) Ideally you will get someone interested enough that they will write
    a patch for the new feature. Even better if you are a programmer and
    can do it yourself. If you have seen this feature in another program
    or have read a research paper on it then submit a URL so that it can
    be referenced for further information.

4.) Even though you or someone else has not submitted a patch if your
    suggestion is good enough, and there is enough popular response
    to it, the TAG members will at a minimum try to get the POV-Team
    excited about the new feature. If the POV-Team gets excited enough
    they will spend the time to add the feature to POV-Ray themselves.
    The POV-Team has no shortage of things they would like to add to
    the program already !

5.) You should be aware that many of the POV-Ray developers are reading
    the messages in these groups regularly and have already seen your
    suggestion (Ron Parker, Nathan Kopp e.g.). Add to that they have 
    likely heard it before and it might already be on their list of
    things to do. What the priority for new feature X will be is
    anybody's guess.

6.) Sometimes a suggested feature may cause serious problems with existing
    features, may require a serious rewrite or additions to existing code
    that would make it difficult to implement, or will jeopardize backward
    compatibility. In these cases a suggested feature may have to wait for
    a later version of POV-Ray before it can added or it may never be added
    if it causes too many problems.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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