Wow!  That was more of an answer than I was hoping for!  I had feared
that POV's scripting had simply never been designed for speed above all
other considerations.  I guess it's time I learn C++ properly and
generate some of my scenes that way...

I think I would have to agree - compiling to memory and then
interpreting the code would be a *very* welcome addition for v4.  Any
time lost in interpreting "normal" scenes would probably be negligible
on the vast majority of computers running POV by that time (I'm guessing
POV 4 is at least 2 years off?), and the benefits in terms of scripting
capability would be enourmous.

As regards sanity-checking of a compiled POV file, a flag at the start
of the file identifying it as a user-generated file could be used to
perform sanity-checking only when necessary.  One would then have to
trust people to use this flag properly, though...

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