I was just thinking of divorcing the SDL from the scene/render/animation 
engine in such a way that you can create languages that generate code 
that can be 'executed' by a CLR 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Language_Runtime).

So the POV engine would become a "Framework" that no longer parses 
strings, but instead just executes some minimalist bytecode.  Then the 
"languages" just have to create the SDL bytecode and pass it to the .POV 
CLR.

This kind of architecture could lead to the same kind of environment we 
have in .net today... a compiled C# object can be easily dropped into a 
J# application, or VB.NET application (true language independence).  Now 
I know that this does not (directly) address the Linux and Mac worlds 
(sorry) - but the idea holds true regardless.

The Rendering engine should accept only strictly formatted bytecode.

Languages should be completely abstracted from the renderer.


This would open the doors to things like...

Webservices
Web-based rendering
network job-sharing (want to use 30 PCs to render your animation? want 
to have a dedicated prerenderer, renderer, and post-processor?)

Oh yeah, and if POV could be plugged into Visual Studio (and the 
linux/mac equivalents), you get...
. source control integration
. database access (want to store 20,000 asteroids in an Oracle database?)
. Web access (want to access Google Maps to get map data for a render?)
. Complex math, variable scopes, recursion, inheritance, "AI"

I think the possibilities are pretty limitless.


Rarius wrote:
> I must admit to liking the idea of a POV library... especially a .POV. Being 
> a software engineer by trade thats not really surprising!
> 
> For many of us hard core coders that wouldn't be a bad solution. But it 
> would require a .NET developement environment and they don't come cheap 
> (unless your boss provides one like mine does!)
> 
> POVRay has always been free and I hope it will remain so. If it suddenly 
> requires an expensive developement suite like VisualStudio that blows the 
> whole "free" thing out of the water.
> 
> Nice idea, but I doubt it will fly.
> 
> Rarius
> 
> 
> "Bryan Valencia" <no### [at] waycom> wrote in message 
> news:47040096$1@news.povray.org...
>> I've been following the "new language SDL" thread for a while, but I don't 
>> know if this topic has been covered.
>>
>> Having been a fan of Borland, and now a user of Visual Studio, I would 
>> like to present the notion of using a language-independent framework, like 
>> the .net framework and then document it so well that us users can write 
>> our own front-end languages, a la Visual Basic, C#, J#, ASP.NET, etc.
>>
>> So there would be the ".POV Framework" and then C#.POV, J#.POV, Visual 
>> POV...
>>
>> Also, if I want to create a post-processor library, or an animation 
>> utility, or a complicated subroutine that can create a random moon for 
>> example, then the compiled libraries could work with all the 
>> implementations.
>>
>> Maybe (and this is a big maybe) we could boil down the SDL to a set of 
>> libraries that can be plugged in to Visual Studio, or used with Java or 
>> Perl, etc.
>>
>>
>>
>> I know this is a lot of work, but it would get the POV team out of the 
>> language biz and let them focus on thing like rendering engines and speed 
>> optimizations.
>>
>> Sorry if this has been brought up previously, but I missed it if it was.
> 
> 


-- 
---
Bryan Valencia

- I'd rather live with false hope than with false despair.

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