On 2016-11-13 3:37 AM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
> On 13-11-2016 9:34, Stephen wrote:
>> On 11/13/2016 8:07 AM, Thomas de Groot wrote:
>>> On 13-11-2016 5:02, Sherry K. Shaw wrote:
>>>> Thomas de Groot wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Ah! There it is! This has been indeed one of the major complaints:
>>>>> people (outside of POV-Ray) do not want to create using text editors
>>>>> (any more).
>>>>
>>>> I Do Not Fingerpaint.
>>>>
>>>> I Do Not Use Software That Expects Me To Fingerpaint.
>>>>
>>>> I Am A Grownup.  I Can Read And Write.  I Can Do Math.
>>>>
>>>> Reading And Writing And Math Are Accurate.  Fingerpainting Is
>>>> Guesswork.
>>>>  I Like Accuracy.  I Do Not Like Guesswork.
>>>>
>>>> I Like Reading And Writing.  I Like Doing Math.  I Want To Read And
>>>> Write And Do Math.  I Do Not Want To Fingerpaint.
>>>>
>>>> And that's why I do POV-Ray.*  :)
>>>>
>>>> --Sherry Shaw
>>>>
>>>> * Oh, and also because it is awesome.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Absolutely! Although, me, I am not very good at math, so I mix POV-Ray
>>> with a bit of fingerpainting.
>>>
>>> [blush][small print] I like fingerpainting [/small print][/blush]
>>>
>>
>> I'm too lazy to do the maths.
>> Splash a bit here smudge a bit there. That's the way to do it!
>>
>> Does the kraken awake?
>> Because I think LanuHum is right.
>> <aside> I wonder what the average age of Pov-Ray users is. </aside>
>
> Age? well above average I am sure. So, what to do about it?
>

What POVRay needs is its own user interface tailored to POVRay. Other 
user interfaces tend to break the world into triangles which don't 
translate well to POVRay.  The POVRay text files are cumbersome because 
they are non-visual and they force you to constantly switch from text 
mode to render mode.

I would like to see a user interface that supports all of the POVRay 
primitives.  It would allow you select components of the scene with 
parameters that are alterable.  You don't necessarily need to see the 
text but rather a graphical representation of the text.  It would allow 
you to change any parameters and would re-render the scene automatically 
with those changes.  The rendering might be incremental - it renders in 
low resolution first and refines the image as you wait or renders 
without textures then with textures or it renders without reflections 
and later adds reflections - just some ideas.

I often find myself asking "What happens if I change this parameter?" 
To answer that I need to keep editing and rendering until I understand 
it.  I'd rather select the parameter in a UI and use the mouse to change 
the value and see in real time what it does to the image.

Thoughts?
David Buck

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