On 11/19/19 5:37 PM, Bald Eagle wrote:
> 
> 
> http://www.povray.org/download/
> 
> is woefully out of date and pretty sparse on installation details.
> 
> https://www.povray.org/download/linux.php
> 
> doesn't really work for me.
> 
> This worked flawlessly:
>
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/message/%3C5d2d8c2a%241%40news.povray.org%3E/#%3C5d2d8c2a%241%40news.povr
> ay.org%3E
> 
> I think that it would be helpful, especially since we are seeing new users
> appear, to update the downloads and installation pages, and provide some
> information about the directory structure (where the binary resides, etc)
> 
> A link to the github page
> how to install from that .zip file
> 
> and perhaps some links to experimental versions such a hgpovray38, W. Pokorny's
> branch(es), the newly resurrected pov modeler, etc.
> 
> Having a way to install and update POV-Ray with apt-get, yum, or any other
> package manager would be great.   Perhaps even some .deb packages.
> 
> from:  http://www.povray.org/download/
> "...it is expected that many Unix-like systems that have package managers or a
> ports system will provide a single-line means of installing a binary or
> fetching/building from source"
> 
> Just an observation.
> 
> 
On this last bit, povray is available for debian and many debian derived 
linux versions. On my Ubuntu system:

   apt-cache search povray

gives me:

gdis - molecular and crystal model viewer
goxel - 3D voxel editor
gpsprune - visualize, edit, convert and prune GPS data
povray - Persistence of vision raytracer (3D renderer)
povray-doc - Persistence of vision raytracer (3D renderer) documentation
povray-examples - Persistence of vision raytracer (3D renderer) sample files
povray-includes - Persistence of vision raytracer (3D renderer) include 
files

Further, vim/gvim, ships with all linux versions - I believe - along 
with syntax highlighting for POV-Ray.

Expect most linux users are getting povray this way whether they are 
installing it themselves - or perhaps as part of system images created 
by others if working at some institution, company or whatever where the 
sys-admins have included the package.

That said... I didn't install the v3.7 package. If you can compile a 
version yourself for each *nix machine running povray, you'll get better 
performance. The reason is the generic debian packages are compiled to a 
generic and old architecture so users of those compiles miss out on many 
specific things newer CPUs can do.

---
As to your other comments about the web site, I agree. What I know is 
those maintaining the web site have been buried with real life for a 
long time and can only occasionally do minor things we see. This is 
partly because they've continued doing many of the ongoing, invisible 
maintenance things for the web site in the little hobby time they've got.

I would say the wiki is a possibility for some of us to step in with 
alternative pages to which we could point new users. Except! For a long 
time I've not been able to create links (months since checking, fixed?). 
I find it awkward to use though maybe with more practice that gets 
better. Lastly, the trouble with user supported wiki's is they also 
become outdated if the users don't continue support - it's the state of 
our user wiki today.

The only open source tooling I see not suffering major stalls are those 
with core development somehow funded/supported over the long term. I 
mean the core, day to day, boring parts of developing - not paying yyy 
to implement feature zzz. Though, that latter part often follows having 
the base support. I don't know whether such a setup is even possible 
with POV-Ray. Expect such a core funded model has its downsides too.

One of the things I like about POV-Ray is it's a relatively tranquil 
place compared to the screaming noise that is most of the internet / 
modern life. Were the web site to get major updates, my hope would be 
for a kinda boring, clean correctness so as not to attract too much 
attention... :-)

Bill P.

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