Am 26.09.2017 um 00:03 schrieb Bald Eagle:
> Well, that explains why I can't access the help menu / docs with either F1 or
> the drop-down menu.

Well... no, that's a different problem (though not entirely unrelated):
The name of the help file has been changed from `povray37.chm` to
`povray.chm`.

You can obtain an up-to-date help file from our GitHub repo; here's link
directly to the download:

https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/raw/release/v3.8.0/distribution/platform-specific/windows/Help/povray.chm


>> Another reason might be that POV-Ray's version numbering scheme has
>> never been officially codified until quite recently.
> 
> Is there documentation / explanation for how that all works?
> Just curious, because one thing I'd like to see folks voluntarily adopt is
> version numbers in their filenames and as comments in the code.
> 
> I often can't figure out which file I have, or what the latest file of the 12
> all-named-the-same "myUsefulMacros.inc" is, and if I understood the reasoning
> behind the classification, I could start to play along from home.  ;)
> 
> It would also be useful for the Insert-Menu, parts of which I tend to
> extensively edit, and am paranoid that I'm going to accidentally obliterate with
> some new version installation....

Not sure what your question is here.

If you are looking for a good version numbering scheme for stuff you've
created (or that others have created), I strongly recommend having a
look at Semantic Versioning (http://semver.org/).

In a nutshell, in Semantic Versioning version numbers take the form
`MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`, where all of `MAJOR`, `MINOR` and `PATCH` are
numeric, and...

- An increment in `MAJOR` indicates backward-incompatible changes.
- An increment in `MINOR` indicates added functionality.
- An increment in `PATCH` indicates bugfixes.

In addition, an optional (not necessarily numeric) suffix of the form
`-PRE` can be appended, indicating that this is not quite version
MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH yet (e.g. `-alpha`, `-beta.32`, `rc2` or the like).

In binaries, another optional (not necessarily numeric) suffix,
`+BUILD`, can be appended to distinguish different binaries built from
the same source code version (e.g. `+win32-sse2`).


As for POV-Ray's recently codified version numbering scheme, it is
strongly inspired by Semantic Versioning 2.0, but does have some notable
differences. For details, see the following link:

https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/blob/release/v3.8.0/source-doc/versioning.md

Post a reply to this message

clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:

> You can obtain an up-to-date help file from our GitHub repo; here's link
> directly to the download:
>
>
https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/raw/release/v3.8.0/distribution/platform-specific/windows/Help/povray.chm

Super.  Thanks for the tip  :)



> In a nutshell, in Semantic Versioning version numbers take the form
> `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`, where all of `MAJOR`, `MINOR` and `PATCH` are
> numeric, and...
>
> - An increment in `MAJOR` indicates backward-incompatible changes.
> - An increment in `MINOR` indicates added functionality.
> - An increment in `PATCH` indicates bugfixes.

Thanks - that little framework ought to be all I need to make more sense of
things and try to keep files better organized.

Post a reply to this message

Attention please!

Must caution everyone concerning what I said earlier about the alpha being okay
anywhere, so back to the subject of running the 3.8 alpha pvengine64.exe from
any 3.7.x install.

Something happened with the file open and file save that I can't explain. Don't
know if it has anything to do with what Clipka was saying about version mixups
but since I had put the 3.8 alpha into all three installs here I guess that's a
possibility.

Those three versions are 3.7.0, 3.7.1 beta and 3.7.1.  I only rendered already
open files to test 3.8 alpha, until now. Did not realize anything might be
wrong.

So would be wise to avoid putting the alpha into multiple installs anyhow, or at
least pvengine64.exe since that's what I was using.

The file open/save (as) caused Windows 10 to force a close of the program. Acts
like it isn't able to determine the correct folder/file location to use.

And unfortunately, for me, uninstalling all versions and reinstalling 3.7.0
again has yet to fix the problem.

Post a reply to this message

"omniverse" <omn### [at] charternet> wrote:
>
> Attention please!
[snip]
> The file open/save (as) caused Windows 10 to force a close of the program. Acts
> like it isn't able to determine the correct folder/file location to use.
>
> And unfortunately, for me, uninstalling all versions and reinstalling 3.7.0
> again has yet to fix the problem.

Sorry to hear that you're having such troubles. I guess you've already tried
shutting down the machine and restarting? That seems to help somewhat with
strange glitches, at least on my Win7 box. Sounds like a registry problem (if
Win10 even has a registry now!)

The only problem I've ever seen with POV-Ray (in my own similar alpha/beta
install screwups) is a mis-loaded 'resolution INI' file; but that was easily
fixed.

Post a reply to this message

"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> "omniverse" <omn### [at] charternet> wrote:
> >
> > Attention please!
> [snip]
> > The file open/save (as) caused Windows 10 to force a close of the program. Acts
> > like it isn't able to determine the correct folder/file location to use.
> >
> > And unfortunately, for me, uninstalling all versions and reinstalling 3.7.0
> > again has yet to fix the problem.
>
> Sorry to hear that you're having such troubles. I guess you've already tried
> shutting down the machine and restarting? That seems to help somewhat with
> strange glitches, at least on my Win7 box. Sounds like a registry problem (if
> Win10 even has a registry now!)
>
> The only problem I've ever seen with POV-Ray (in my own similar alpha/beta
> install screwups) is a mis-loaded 'resolution INI' file; but that was easily
> fixed.

Thanks for the sentiment, and I can't report a successful fix yet. Other than to
say it's apparently only affecting the pvengine64.exe while the
pvengine32-sse2.exe is okay.

I went into the registry editor to look around and found a curious thing, no
..pov listed among all the other file types. Although there is the .inc file type
there, it says inc_auto_file within it, and once finding that particular item it
has a pointer (shell, command, open) to "pvengine64.exe" "%1"

Risk taker that I am I duplicated the .inc to make a new .pov and whatever
happened wasn't a fix, but it might have allowed POV-Ray to list folder contents
when I tried to Open a file before once again freezing and forcing another close
of the program.

All this after a couple variations on uninstalls and reinstalls of only version
3.7.0.0.

I'm fairly sure something got mixed up in the Windows registry that makes
pvengine.exe choke on the folder/file system.

Probably my fault for putting everything from version 3.1g to 3.8 on here, beta
and rc 3.7.1 and unofficial stuff too.

Another thing I need to check is a user account which also uses 3.7.0.0
pvengine64.exe but not the others.

Post a reply to this message

Am 28.09.2017 um 07:18 schrieb omniverse:

> I went into the registry editor to look around and found a curious thing, no
> ...pov listed among all the other file types. Although there is the .inc file type
> there, it says inc_auto_file within it, and once finding that particular item it
> has a pointer (shell, command, open) to "pvengine64.exe" "%1"

Normally, you should find something like the following (HKCR =
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, D:\POV-Ray = C:\Program Files\POV-Ray):

HKCR\.pov
    (default)       POV-Ray.Scene
    PerceivedType   text

HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene
    (default)       POV-Ray scene source file

HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\DefaultIcon
    (default)       D:\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\POV-Ray.Scene-XP.ico

HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Open
    (default)       Edit in POV-Ray 3.7

HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Open\command
    (default)       "D:\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\pvengine64.exe" /edit "%1"

HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Render
    (default)       Render with POV-Ray 3.7

HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Render\command
    (default)       "D:\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\pvengine64.exe" /render "%1"

(typically along with one entry per key named "backup")


Besides that, you should also have the following keys, each with lots of
stuff in them (HKCU = Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER):

HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\Components
HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit
HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Macro
HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Older
HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Open
HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Recent
HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\Windows

If you don't see those keys, shout out loud.

You might also want to have a close look at the following entry:

HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit
    InitialDir

That's where POV-Ray (more specifically, POV-Ray's editor DLL) seems to
get the initial directory for the "open file" dialog. If that registry
entry is broken, that might explain your symptoms.

Post a reply to this message

clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:

Thanks for the help! Haven't fixed it by checking what you listed, only found
one thing not the same.

> Normally, you should find something like the following (HKCR =
> Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, D:\POV-Ray = C:\Program Files\POV-Ray):
>
> HKCR\.pov
>     (default)       POV-Ray.Scene
>     PerceivedType   text
>
> HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene
>     (default)       POV-Ray scene source file
>
> HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\DefaultIcon
>     (default)       D:\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\POV-Ray.Scene-XP.ico
>
> HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Open
>     (default)       Edit in POV-Ray 3.7
>
> HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Open\command
>     (default)       "D:\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\pvengine64.exe" /edit "%1"
>
> HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Render

That said "edit" not render, other parts within were right.

>     (default)       Render with POV-Ray 3.7
>
> HKCR\POV-Ray.Scene\shell\Render\command
>     (default)       "D:\POV-Ray\v3.7\bin\pvengine64.exe" /render "%1"
>
> (typically along with one entry per key named "backup")
>
>
> Besides that, you should also have the following keys, each with lots of
> stuff in them (HKCU = Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER):
>
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\Components
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Macro
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Older
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Open
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit\Recent
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\Windows

All there but I removed references to versions 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7.1 beta.

> You might also want to have a close look at the following entry:
>
> HKCU\Software\POV-Ray\v3.7\POV-Edit
>     InitialDir
>
> That's where POV-Ray (more specifically, POV-Ray's editor DLL) seems to
> get the initial directory for the "open file" dialog. If that registry
> entry is broken, that might explain your symptoms.

When reading this I thought that was going to be the answer. It wasn't.

Once again, I have the file open box showing the folder/file list but no buttons
or finishing of that box. It wasn't doing that much before I attempted to get
that missing HKCR/.pov into the registry, which I found was put right after I
removed it.

The broken Open file box is there several moments before Windows puts up the
close program message. Must be something else the 64-bit POV-Ray is expecting to
find.

I've already looked at pvengine.ini in the Documents POV-Ray ini folder and it
has the right things there, based on previous backup save of that.

I think next step would be to try a Restore Point and go back to an earlier time
when things were okay, so I'm going to give that a look. I'm not sure about
getting back to before 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7.1 beta were installed. I wonder how much
3.5 caused trouble, since it refused to render a while ago and I ignored it.

Post a reply to this message

Am 28.09.2017 um 21:10 schrieb omniverse:

> Once again, I have the file open box showing the folder/file list but no buttons
> or finishing of that box. It wasn't doing that much before I attempted to get
> that missing HKCR/.pov into the registry, which I found was put right after I
> removed it.
> 
> The broken Open file box is there several moments before Windows puts up the
> close program message. Must be something else the 64-bit POV-Ray is expecting to
> find.

Strictly speaking, it's not POV-Ray itself (pvengine.exe) that's dealing
with the Open file dialog, but the editor DLLs (more specifically,
cmedit*.dll). Maybe you want to investigate in that direction (e.g.
uninstalling and re-installing the editor DLLs).

Post a reply to this message

clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Am 28.09.2017 um 21:10 schrieb omniverse:
>
> > Once again, I have the file open box showing the folder/file list but no buttons
> > or finishing of that box. It wasn't doing that much before I attempted to get
> > that missing HKCR/.pov into the registry, which I found was put right after I
> > removed it.
> >
> > The broken Open file box is there several moments before Windows puts up the
> > close program message. Must be something else the 64-bit POV-Ray is expecting to
> > find.
>
> Strictly speaking, it's not POV-Ray itself (pvengine.exe) that's dealing
> with the Open file dialog, but the editor DLLs (more specifically,
> cmedit*.dll). Maybe you want to investigate in that direction (e.g.
> uninstalling and re-installing the editor DLLs).

Only did the editor re-installs along with 3.7.0.0 install after everything was
uninstalled. No change there anyhow.

I may have jumped the gun on finding the actual problem because I just did the
restore point to what was good a week ago and that fixed it. Or has for now.

Took a look at the redone registry and found a surprise. Or at least didn't
notice, or mixed myself up about it.
Under HKCR there isn't a POV-Ray listed there, although the .pov and all else
within it is okay. Instead there's a povfile key, with the associated shell
commands.

Can't investigate more, I'm going out my door for the evening and late already!
Typical for me.

Hope to shed more light on this later. Thanks for the registry info!

Post a reply to this message

Le 17-09-28 à 16:44, omniverse a écrit :

> 
> Only did the editor re-installs along with 3.7.0.0 install after everything was
> uninstalled. No change there anyhow.
> 
> I may have jumped the gun on finding the actual problem because I just did the
> restore point to what was good a week ago and that fixed it. Or has for now.
> 
> Took a look at the redone registry and found a surprise. Or at least didn't
> notice, or mixed myself up about it.
> Under HKCR there isn't a POV-Ray listed there, although the .pov and all else
> within it is okay. Instead there's a povfile key, with the associated shell
> commands.
> 
> Can't investigate more, I'm going out my door for the evening and late already!
> Typical for me.
> 
> Hope to shed more light on this later. Thanks for the registry info!
> 
> 

Maybe you got a broken download.
I would clear my browser cache, then get a new download to reinstall 
everything. Don't know if you did just that, but probably worth trying.

Post a reply to this message