Twyst wrote:
> 
> I had a great idea recently...
> 
> Do a "User Documentation Project"!

Okay...
I think it's save to say there is an audience for such a project. I now
only have one question left:
    "When do we begin?"

Phoenix

--
http://users.telekabel.nl/eagle
----------------------------------------------------------------------
AFP Code 1.1 AC d%40 s%40:-- a- U++ R++ F++ h- P- OS-:%40 C++ M-
pp---- L+ c%40 B- Cn%40 PT++ Pu71@ 5++ X-- MT%40 e%40 r- y+ end

Post a reply to this message

Great Idea! I agree wholeheartedly. Even though I am not a regular contributor
to this group, I read it daily. Another project that I would like to do, and it
is related somewhat to your idea, is to create an archive of the problems and
solutions that appear in these newsgroups, with explanations on the why's and
how's of it all.

Going through this newsgroup isn't a problem, but I certainly don't want to
duplicate anybody's efforts. Has someone done this already?

Josh English
eng### [at] spiritonecom
www.spiritone.com/~english

Twyst wrote:

> I had a great idea recently...
>
> Do a "User Documentation Project"!
>
> I had the idea while noticing that the Pov-Ray docs, while complete, didn't
> go into much detail in certain cases, and there are people that DO know
> certain aspects very well. (John VanSickle comes to mind....).
>
> It seems to me that much of the manual could do with expanding on topics
> (Media is one example) and tutorials.
>
> So, here's the complete idea:
> 1. With the pov-team's permission (please, can we?), rewrite the pov-ray
> docs.
> 2. Make it available in a number of formats, from plain text to PDF format.
> 3. I would ALSO like to be able to publish a spiral bound volume, and sell
> it at a minimal cost.
> 4. I intend for this to be a "group" project. It's a daunting task for a
> single person.
>
> Twyst
> =====================================
> twysted mynd - for pov-ray news, reviews, and tutorials
> http://twysted.net
> e-mail: twy### [at] twystednet
> =====================================

Post a reply to this message

Josh English wrote:
> 
> Going through this newsgroup isn't a problem, but I certainly don't want to
> duplicate anybody's efforts. Has someone done this already?
> 
> Josh English

 Not an all encompasing faq but Warp has a list of very frequently
asked questions faq at:

http://www.students.tut.fi/~warp/povVFAQ.html

  It covers many of the basics but there is room for improvement.
Problem I see with compiling all of the questions and answeres
is that many are specific to a given scene and are not general
in content. To be effective the list must anticipate what's
going to be asked and have an easily indexed set of answers.
If it is overly comprehensive i.e. it has every question and
answer listed in these groups it would not only be huge it would
in all likelyhood become difficult to extract the specific
information a person is looking for.

 I'm not saying it wouldn't be a worth while project but I would
hate to be the one to have to weigh what should and should not be
included and how many of the answers are worth while or uninformed.
Probably take over an hour to do the job right.

-- 
Ken Tyler

tyl### [at] pacbellnet

Post a reply to this message

dar### [at] pipelinecom wrote:
<snip>
> For a long time
> I've been wanting to make a table of superellipsoid settings and their
> results.   I've been too lazy to actually do this, but now, Lance, you have
> made the call for this Great Project, so now I will get real about this.

Take a look at this,
http://isg.cs.tcd.ie/kennedys/raytracing/gallery/superquadric.jpg
I think this is what you are looking for. The site is the some examples
from someones raytracing thesis.
-- 
Chris Maryan
mailto:cma### [at] geocitiescom
***
Will work for cash.
***
Email me if you are interested in donating
to the Chris Maryan needs money fund.
We will also accept donations to the Chris
needs a Pentium II or SGI workstation 
fund and the Chris needs a car fund.

Post a reply to this message

dar### [at] pipelinecom wrote in message <36896B55.D609E985@pipeline.com>...

>
>Yup, i'm a physicist.   Such things I understand well in my sleep.   I'd be
>happy to explain scattering, quilt patterns, and whatnot in non-math terms,
>with plenty of pictures.
>

Yay! (Twyst sneaks over, ties Daren up, and makes him tell all he knows)
>
>> -- Yes, it can be useful, but without a detailed
>> explanation ( in layman's terms, not mathematical) It's pretty useless to
>> me. I usually just skip right over them.
>> Renderings SHOWING the effects of the different settings would be far
more
>> useful, imho.
>
>An excellent idea.   The official POV docs show a nice series of images to
>explain some things, but whoa! is it lacking in others.    For a long time
>I've been wanting to make a table of superellipsoid settings and their
>results.   I've been too lazy to actually do this, but now, Lance, you have
>made the call for this Great Project, so now I will get real about this.

Go to, go to!

Oh ya. I'm not Lance. =)


>
>---
>Daren Scot Wilson
>dar### [at] pipelinecom
>www.newcolor.com
>"A ship...etc"  (just reinstalled linux, still haven't restored my email
>signature file)
>

Post a reply to this message

I'd certainly like to give it a shot. I couldn't really call it a FAQ, but
perhaps a cyclopedia of solutions.

And I've tried looking at the FAQ you refer to but I either get a 404 HTML error
or "Server not responding errors" Bummer. I think I will at least try. I would
like to give something back to the POV-Ray community.

Josh

Ken wrote:

> Josh English wrote:
> >
> > Going through this newsgroup isn't a problem, but I certainly don't want to
> > duplicate anybody's efforts. Has someone done this already?
> >
> > Josh English
>
>  Not an all encompasing faq but Warp has a list of very frequently
> asked questions faq at:
>
> http://www.students.tut.fi/~warp/povVFAQ.html
>
>   It covers many of the basics but there is room for improvement.
> Problem I see with compiling all of the questions and answeres
> is that many are specific to a given scene and are not general
> in content. To be effective the list must anticipate what's
> going to be asked and have an easily indexed set of answers.
> If it is overly comprehensive i.e. it has every question and
> answer listed in these groups it would not only be huge it would
> in all likelyhood become difficult to extract the specific
> information a person is looking for.
>
>  I'm not saying it wouldn't be a worth while project but I would
> hate to be the one to have to weigh what should and should not be
> included and how many of the answers are worth while or uninformed.
> Probably take over an hour to do the job right.
>
> --
> Ken Tyler
>
> tyl### [at] pacbellnet

Post a reply to this message

Twyst wrote:
> dar### [at] pipelinecom wrote in message > >
> >Yup, i'm a physicist.   Such things I understand well in my sleep.   I'd be
> >happy to explain scattering, quilt patterns, and whatnot in non-math terms,
> >with plenty of pictures.
> >
> 
> Yay! (Twyst sneaks over, ties Daren up, and makes him tell all he knows)
> >

Arggggh!  Yowww!  OKAY!! OKAY!!   E equals M see cubed!  Really! 
Quantum theory is an elaborate hoax!!  Yow!!   It's all ray-traced!
Really! The whole universe!! Yowwww!

(I didn't say I was a *sane* physicist ;-)


>> ...
> Go to, go to!
> 
> Oh ya. I'm not Lance. =)

Yeah, yeah, but you guys look so similar...?  From now on my brain is
going to be single-tasking, no more composing three e-mail replies at
the same time...  It should be noted that my little faux pas was
performed in 1998, so I have yet to make my first mestake of 1999...
oops!   :-(


-- 
Daren Scot Wilson
dar### [at] pipelinecom 
www.newcolor.com
----
"A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for"
                                            -- William Shedd

Post a reply to this message

Twyst wrote:

> dar### [at] pipelinecom wrote in message <36896B55.D609E985@pipeline.com>...
>
> >results.   I've been too lazy to actually do this, but now, Lance, you have
> >made the call for this Great Project, so now I will get real about this.
>
> Go to, go to!
>
> Oh ya. I'm not Lance. =)

Not with THAT attitude you aren't! :)

Simon
http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:

> My 2 centimes (until Dec 31, 1999)
> I don't think it's necessary to rewrite the help file, which is very good on the
> whole. However, I completely agree that there's a lot to do... Povray has become
> so powerful that my lingering "fear" is to see it becoming more
> programmer-oriented than user-oriented. But that's another debate...
> Perhaps we can distinguish between what would be the enhancement of the current
> help (basically a more practical tutorial on media, macros, and radiosity, that
> could be integrated in the present help), and an "applied tips" section (how to
> get better lighting, how to do realistic skies, water, how to make a tree with a
> recursive macro etc.) fed by users.

I have been scared off long, long ago (about 8 minutes after downloading it,
actually :)

This is why I use Moray. And I, for one, would love to see more non coding
explanations of things like media. The manual gives code examples, but this doesn't
tell me much about what media is, and what it does. And more importantly, how to use
it properly.

Simon
http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet

Post a reply to this message

>It is perhaps ironic that the
>CSG directory may be below average in its use of CSG :).


Maybe that's because they wanted to keep the scenes simple
enough to make it possible for the reader of the source to
understand what is done.

>Still, these examples are not extremely well organized.  A
coherent
>framework might prove useful.

I think here's a good point. Go ahead and improve their
readability :)
It takes a lot of time to plow through all the include files
to find out how those 'advanced' scenes have been made.
Before you can learn from those, you have to have more than
a little knowledge of the pov code.
Well, maybe that's the reason the pov team placed those
scenes in the 'advanced' dir.. :)

Julius

Post a reply to this message