The only change I have considered wanting is a trend towards objects oriented
programming, but all I really want is the ability to pull a value from an
object, such as the location of the camera so I could declare camera.location
instead of making the current method

#declare CamLoc = <0,0,-4>;

camera { location CamLoc ... }

#declare Target = CamLoc;

but I think this would make it overly complicated.

Josh

Ken wrote:

> Greetings,
>
>   As we all know the language used by POV-Ray is not only easy to use
> but offers a lot of flexibility. There are often many ways to describe
> an object or attribute of an object because of the "looseness" of
> it's language.
>
>  Now many in the past have argued that it is too primitive for thier
> needs and suggest that it become more of an official programming
> language. They also suggest it should become more object oriented
> or stricter rules should be applied to the language from what it is
> now. Some say the syntax is too loose for all practical purposes.
> Some even suggest it should move to a binary format that needs to
> be compiled before being parsed (heaven forbid).
>
>  I say the one thing that attracted me to POV-Ray was the fact that
> it's text based input was both easy to learn, was intuitive from the
> beginning, and I never had to learn a programmers language to use
> the program. I like the way that you can describe something in several
> ways to achieve the same results. In my opinion this loose and very
> flexible language makes it a very powerful program to use.
>
>  What I do worry about though is the influence that the people who seek
> a more programmer like language may have for the mass of people that have
> no programming background but still enjoy using the program. It might
> be good for them in some circumstances but would it be good for everyone
> is not so cut and dried as it were.
>
> So the questions I have are really for the non-programmer types out there.
>
> Would you have difficulty re-learning POV-Ray if it's language format
> changed ?
>
> Would you resent it or maybe even quit using the program completely ?
>
> P.S. I am not suggesting that the POV-Team is even considering changing
>      the language at this time. I am mearly trying to find out what the
>      mainstream users of the program think about this and if they really
>      like the way the syntax is currently structured.
>
> --
> Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
> http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

--
Josh English
eng### [at] spiritonecom
"May your hopes, dreams, and plans not be destroyed by a few zeros."

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