Nigel Stewart wrote:

>         Yes, from a POV-script point of view, macros and stuff
>         are nice to have.  But I think from a data-oriented
>         point of view, it's cleaner to leave them out and
>         leave it open to other language environments to do
>         algorithmic processing.

After reading much of this thread, I still don't get the whole idea (or I'm
utterly dumb). I understand how it would be theoretically interesting to have
alternate language environments for POV (while keeping the regular one), more
suited to programming. I understand the current limitations of the POV script.
What I don't get is the ultimate purpose of the proposed changes. In other
words, apart the satisfaction of having a suitable programming language for
pov, what would it be useful for ? What could be done with that that you
cannot do by the current means, either with macros or by hacking the code ?And
who would use it ? After all, people who have enough programming background
can already have fun with the povray code, or they can have fun programming
utilities for it and they have had a lot of success doing it. Unless I'm
deeply mistaken, a well-written compiled utility developed in C++ will be
always faster and smoother than anything written in an interpreted language. I
can see, for instance, how POV would benefit from a plug-in system that would
allow programmers to develop extensions without the need to recompile the
whole code.
On the other hand, people who want to do professional graphics would  rather
program to make RIB files, which is an industry standard (again, please
correct me if I'm wrong).
If someone can provide real-life examples of the benefits of such a
development, I'll be happy to be enlightened :-)

G.

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