Carl wrote:
> Any ideas?

POV-Ray is not very good at making dynamic programs. For instance, you 
can't have a simulation running forever. The best you can do is 
precalculate everything and have POV render the result.

Learning C++ really isn't all that difficult. Mastering it is though... 
My choice environment for creating C++ programs is Dev-Cpp. There are 
graphics libraries you can get for it. You can make graphics with SDL 
(Simple DirectMedia Layer) or with the HGE 2D game engine (v1.7 for 
DEV-Cpp) if you have DirectX 8.0 or greater installed on your computer. 
I like to use HGE, since the graphics are smooth and it's really easy to 
pick up and start creating things right away. It's also *really* fast. I 
haven't had much luck getting an HGE app to work with Vista, though from 
what I hear this is pretty much hit-and-miss. SDL is guaranteed to work, 
but will take some extra time to get it all set up.

Alternatively, you may try Euphoria which is an even simpler programming 
language. Its big selling points are the dynamic arrays and the fact 
that it's a very fast interpreted language. There are graphics libraries 
for DOS, and some others for Windows. Being on Vista though, I don't 
think you'll have much luck getting the DOS graphics libraries to work.

For whatever it's worth, I learned these programming languages in this 
order: QBasic>POV-Ray>Euphoria>C++.

Dev-Cpp: http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
SDL: http://devpaks.org/category.php?category=SDL (CRM32Pro or just SDL)
HGE: http://devpaks.org/category.php?category=SDL

Euphoria: http://devpaks.org/category.php?category=SDL

I recommend learning C++. It can be a very rewarding experience, and the 
speed you get is well worth it. If you get stuck with SDL, it's no big 
thing since it's fast at blitting at drawing pixels. If you want to make 
cellular automation sims, remember: C++ + SDL + arrays = good times :)

Sam

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