In article <38CBBF97.2956477D@pacbell.net>, lin### [at] povrayorg 
wrote:

> I think the idea here is to create a text based modelling/programming
> environment that uses high level programming features and will output
> a standard POV-Ray scene file when done. The resulting scene file will
> comply with current versions of POV-Ray syntax and proceedures. I am
> assuming that when the high level progamming code is parsed/compiled
> it will be automagically translated into native Pov syntax easing the
> development of complex include files and what not but I am still unclear
> about how this will be accomplished.

That is what I am thinking of, except my idea is to use a separate 
parser/interpreter utility to convert to POV(this utility could 
incorporate an editor and a way to call POV to render the scene, 
although these would be platform dependant features), and I understand 
the Java binding idea as a set of programming tools that form a 
framework to develop complex includes in Java, you would plug your parts 
into the framework, run the program, and get a POV scene as output. I 
personally prefer the idea of a simplified, clean, flexible language 
designed for scene description.

The translator utility in it's most basic form would take a text CSDL 
file, read through the description language, and convert structures like 
for(), do{}while(), and while() loops to #while() loops, do "name 
mangling" to simulate the attaching of variables/function-macros to 
specific objects, simulate the behavior of pointers, expand += to = A + 
B, and so on. The output file would probably not be particularly easy to 
read, but the CSDL code would be much easier to understand than the 
equivalent POV-Script code written by a human.

There should probably also be an option to "pre-parse" sections of the 
code, expanding loops and recursive functions and outputting the 
results. That could greatly speed up parsing of the POV file, and the 
translator utility would likely do the job faster than the POV-Ray 
parser(which hasn't been designed for this type of thing from the start, 
and has to do other things like allocate memory and set up data 
structures).

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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