A beta version of the source distribution of POV-Ray 3.6 for UNIX is 
now available for download.  The source archive can be obtained
in two formats depending on the compression method (tarball compressed
with either GNU gzip or the bzip2 utility):

http://pov4grasp.free.fr/povray-3.6.tar.gz  (8.7 MB)
http://pov4grasp.free.fr/povray-3.6.tar.bz2 (7.9 MB)

	Of course you do _not_ need to download both packages  :-)

	Note that the beta status concerns _only_ the build system included in 
this UNIX-specific source distribution.  The official
source distribution for UNIX as well as for the other supported
platforms will be available in a few days.
	As a beta source distribution, we do not recommand you to
try to install the program as root, as it may screw up your system
in case the installation is buggy.  You may try to install POV-Ray as 
non-priviledged user first, and check that it works as expected.
Refer to the installation documentation (see below).
	Similarly, if you are not familiar with building source packages on a 
UNIX system in general, we do not recommand to use this beta source 
distribution.

	After downloading the file, uncompress and unpack the archive
using for instance:

% tar xvzf povray-3.6.tar.gz

	Doing so will create a povray-3.6/ directory.  Go to this
directory with 'cd' and read the README and INSTALL file.  The latter
explains how to prepare the source package for compilation and instal-
lation on your machine.

	The build system has been completely rewritten for POV-Ray 3.6,
and while it has been tested on various platforms, it may fail on your
particular system.  If this is the case, please report the problem(s)
in this thread only.  Simple guidelines in how to make a report are 
given in the INSTALL file (see the "Compatibility" section).  Depending 
on the nature of your problem, we may ask you to post additional data
to help us debugging the build system.
	If otherwise you manage to build POV-Ray successfully, you are
welcome to report your platform specs, so as to add it in the list of
compatible systems.  The "Compatibility" section again shows you what
kind of information to report.

	Thanks for testing the new build system of POV-Ray 3.6 for UNIX!

	- Nicolas Calimet

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